Artemis II on Track, But NASA Awaits Starship Milestones for Artemis III

NASA’s Artemis II crewed test flight is just over a year away.  That April 2026 mission appears to be on track, but questions remain about whether the next flight, Artemis III, will be ready to put a crew on the lunar surface and return them to Earth in mid-2027. SpaceX’s Starship Human Landing System is a critical element that still has to demonstrate a number of technical milestones, including a precursor uncrewed landing — and liftoff — from the Moon.

Speaking to the American Astronautical Society’s Goddard Space Science Symposium last week, Lori Glaze, NASA’s Acting Associate Administrator for Exploration Systems Development, painted an upbeat picture of progress towards Artemis II.

It’s the second test flight for the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion capsule. The first was a 25-day uncrewed test flight in 2022, Artemis I.

This time four astronauts — three Americans and a Canadian — will be aboard. They will not even orbit the Moon, much less land. Instead they’ll be on a 10-day free-return trajectory around the Moon that will bring them back to Earth even if the Orion propulsion system doesn’t perform as planned.

Artemis II was supposed to launch in 2024, two years after Artemis I. The date slipped to 2025 and then 2026 in part because engineers had to determine the cause of unexpected “char loss” on Orion’s heat shield. In December 2024 they decided to use the existing heat shield design for Artemis II, but will make modifications for Artemis III and beyond.

Glaze sounded confident about the Artemis II launch date, while acknowledging issues could arise.  “Of course there will be challenges that come up as we do the final integration and testing and certification, but right now it’s just build and integrate and go. We are in a great spot right now.”

Glaze is the former Director of the Planetary Science Division in the Science Mission Directorate. She moved over to the Exploration Systems Mission Development Mission Directorate last year and was appointed Deputy Associate Administrator. She became Acting Associate Administrator when Cathy Koerner retired last month.

Launching Artemis III in mid-2027, just over two years from now, is a different matter. Not only does that require SLS and Orion, but a Human Landing System (HLS) to get the crew from lunar orbit down to and back from the surface, and spacesuits to wear when they explore the terrain.

SpaceX is building the HLS for Artemis III and Artemis IV.  The Starship HLS is based on the Starship design now being tested at SpaceX’s Boca Chica, TX facility. The eighth Integrated Flight Test (IFT-8) ended in a Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly (RUD) in January, the second in a row. Starship has made three suborbital flights from Texas to the Indian Ocean, but achieving orbit is still on the to-do list.

Once in orbit, Starship must be refueled before heading off to the Moon or other deep space destinations. Orbiting fuel depots don’t exist yet and cryogenic propellant transfer in microgravity hasn’t been demonstrated.

Glaze cited propellant transfer between a depot and Starship as a step NASA hopes SpaceX will get done “sometime this year.” She noted they also need to build up their Starship flight rate to be able to fill the depot with enough fuel for the lunar landing mission. SpaceX has been reluctant to say how many launches are needed for each lunar mission, offering “10-ish” as an approximation.

Before Artemis III’s launch, SpaceX must demonstrate Starship HLS can land on the Moon — and lift off.  The original contract didn’t require liftoff, only landing, but Glaze told the AAS audience SpaceX must “demonstrate a successful uncrewed landing and launch from the surface of the Moon.”

SpacePolicyOnline.com later inquired when the contract changed, what the liftoff requirement is, and whether the contract value increased. A NASA spokesperson responded:

“NASA is preparing for the Artemis III mission, which will send astronauts to the lunar surface to enable science and discovery. Prior to the crewed Artemis III mission, SpaceX will perform an uncrewed landing demonstration mission to the lunar surface with their Starship Human Landing System which requires SpaceX to land and transmit data from the surface for at least two hours. In December 2023, NASA’s Human Landing System Appendix H contract was modified, adding the requirement for Starship to also lift off the lunar surface and demonstrate the ability to relight its Raptor engine. There is no monetary value associated with the contract modification.” — NASA

Starship HLS doesn’t need to reach lunar orbit on that test flight, only lift off the surface.

Glaze also mentioned the lunar spacesuits being developed by Axiom Space, another critical element, are making “very, very nice progress.”

She went on to describe progress on Artemis IV and V as well, describing each of those first five missions as test flights: Artemis I, SLS; Artemis II, Orion with a crew; Artemis III, landing with SpaceX’s Starship HLS; Artemis IV, interacting with the Gateway lunar space station; and Artemis V, landing with Blue Origin’s Blue Moon HLS plus the unpressurized lunar terrain vehicle.

In February, Acting NASA Administrator Janet Petro told reporters the agency is focused on executing its Programs of Record and any changes will wait until a new Administrator is in place. Indeed, Glaze’s presentation indicated no changes to Artemis through the end of the decade.

The future of Artemis has been somewhat in doubt since President Trump returned to the White House. Twice he enthusiastically endorsed Elon Musk’s goal of sending people to Mars, not the Moon, although he downplayed Mars aspirations in a later interview on Fox News.

Artemis actually began in his first term with the goal of putting “the first woman and the next man” on the Moon by 2024. The last Americans to walk on the Moon were Gene Cernan and Harrison “Jack” Schmitt in December 1972.

The 2024 date, announced by Vice President Mike Pence in March 2019, was chosen so the landing ostensibly would take place during Trump’s second term if he was reelected in 2020. That gave NASA only 5 years to do it, which many considered wildly ambitious.

It was President Biden who was elected in 2020, not Trump, but Biden retained the Artemis program including the 2024 date. The mission’s tagline changed to “the first woman and the first person of color.” Later “the first international partner” was added after the U.S. and Japan agreed that a Japanese astronaut would be the first non-U.S. astronaut on the Moon.  The 2024 landing date slipped to 2025, then 2026, and now 2027. With Trump’s reelection last year, the landing still will take place in his second term if the schedule holds.

The only visible change to Artemis in the weeks since Trump returned to office is removal of language on the program’s website that it will put the first woman, first person of color, and first international partner on the Moon, apparently as part of his instructions to eliminate Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) from the federal government.

Right now the spotlight is on getting SLS/Orion ready for launch in April 2026. NASA is posting photos of SLS as it’s “stacked” in the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center: the orange core stage (Boeing) and two Solid Rocket Boosters on each side (Northrop Grumman).  The upper stage or Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (United Launch Alliance) will go on top of the core stage and Lockheed Martin’s Orion crew capsule on top of that.

Over the weekend, Exploration Ground Systems teams stacked the @NASA_SLS core stage for the crewed @NASAArtemis II mission!

Read more about this operation here: https://t.co/Vy6kpeQemd pic.twitter.com/k8kPU4fMoA

— NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems (@NASAGroundSys) March 24, 2025

Alley-oop!

Teams continued to lift the @NASAArtemis II @NASA_SLS core stage in the Vehicle Assembly Building transfer aisle. To cross into the high bay, core stage must clear the 16th level of the building, approximately 190 feet high. Then, teams moved it laterally into High… pic.twitter.com/IiNWCrqH0t

— NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems (@NASAGroundSys) March 25, 2025

Rumors continue to swirl that changes are coming for Artemis, particularly whether SLS will be replaced by a commercial rocket. The President’s FY2026 budget request, whenever it is sent to Congress, should provide answers about what he has in mind and then it will be up to Congress to decide the path forward.