WASHINGTON, US, Oct 24, 2026 - NASA has confirmed the first crewed lunar landing of the Artemis program remains scheduled for 2028. Jared Isaacman, who was NASA Administrator as of 17 September 2026, made the statement Friday.

The agency has revised mission architecture with SpaceX and Blue Origin, abandoning the previously planned near-rectilinear halo lunar orbit. Artemis III will not travel to the Moon, and will instead conduct Earth orbit docking training in summer 2025.

NASA will delay the final award decision for the Artemis IV lunar lander contract, for which both SpaceX and Blue Origin are bidders. Both vendors must complete a full uncrewed demonstration mission before any crewed landing can proceed.

Blue Origin will use three separate transfer stages to deliver its proposed Blue Moon Mark 2 Alpha lander to lunar orbit, deferring in-space propellant transfer. Precursor robotic missions for a planned permanent lunar south pole base are scheduled to launch before the end of 2025.