WASHINGTON, USA, Oct. 23, 2026 - NASA has reshaped its plan for returning astronauts to the Moon. Artemis III will launch in 2027 as a low Earth orbit test mission rather than a landing,^[1] and Artemis IV is targeted for 2028^[2] as the first crewed landing attempt, at the Moon's south pole.^[3] Artemis III was reconfigured earlier this year from a lunar landing into an orbital lander test.^[4] Artemis program manager Jeremy Parsons said it will test three separate spacecraft launched on three different rockets,^[5] and Payload describes the line-up as three launch vehicles, one lunar lander and the Orion capsule.^[6] NASA calls it a 14-day mission,^[1] while Payload reports 14 to 17 days.^[7] The crew will also test spacesuits, run science experiments and rehearse lunar sample return,^[8] and NASA will use the data to lower the risk of the 2028 landing.^[3] NASA has two proposed plans for Artemis IV,^[9] one using SpaceX's Starship^[10] and one using Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket and Mark 2 lander,^[11] and both companies plan independent lunar landing missions in 2028.^[12] NASA has not yet chosen which will fly the first crew.^[13] SpaceX will test orbital propellant transfer in early 2027,^[14] and Blue Origin expects to resume New Glenn launches in November after a May explosion.^[15] Space Nugget. A test in low Earth orbit lets astronauts practise the hardest new step, docking Orion with a lander, a few hundred kilometres up, where a problem can be met with a quick return home instead of a three-day trip back from the Moon. Landers that stay in space never need heat shields or the strength to survive launch from Earth, which is why the new vehicles look so different from Apollo's.