Follow Us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter NASA has revealed new details about its plans to return astronauts to the surface of the moon, outlining a series of upcoming milestones for SpaceX and Blue Origin as both companies rush to prepare their lunar landers for the agency’s Artemis program. During a presentation on October 5 at the Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Antalya, Türkiye, Steve Creech, acting manager of NASA’s Human Landing System (HLS). The program established development timelines for both spacecraft, with key demonstrations planned through early 2028 that include orbital refueling and uncrewed lunar landing tests to qualify the vehicles to take astronauts to the surface of the moon. However, a more pressing deadline is NASA’s Artemis III mission, which is scheduled for the third quarter (Q3) of 2027. Artemis III will launch four astronauts aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft to low Earth orbit (LEO), where they will rendezvous and dock with test versions of both companies’ landers for interoperability checks. Those demonstrations will help inform NASA about which lander the agency will choose to take astronauts to the moon’s surface on Artemis IV, scheduled for early 2028. SpaceX and Blue Origin won contracts from NASA to develop HLS vehicles (Starship and Blue Moon, respectively) and have spent the last few years refining their respective lunar lander designs and dealing with several delays along the way. In the face of those delays, and in an effort to better structure its mission progression for success, NASA revised the architecture of its Artemis program in February to maintain its goal of landing astronauts on the moon by the end of 2028 and establish a more regular cadence of uncrewed landings in the meantime. As part of that reorganization, Artemis III, previously the program’s first crewed lunar landing mission, was brought forward a year and repurposed for testing lunar lander that the agency is preparing to fly. to LEO next year. The program’s first moon landing is still scheduled for 2028, but was moved to the Artemis IV manifest. You may like Between now and then, both SpaceX and Blue Origin have more than a dozen test demonstrations and vehicle milestones to achieve, including success during Artemis III and subsequent flights. All of this will lead to a key decision NASA must make: Which vehicle will make the first crewed landing on the surface of the moon since the Apollo program ended in 1972? Starship first arrived on its most recent test flight, which occurred on September 28 from SpaceX’s Starbase site in south Texas. NASA lists several other major goals the vehicle must achieve by 2026, including (in the order listed during the IAC presentation) the first return and capture of the rocket’s upgraded Version 3 (V3) booster on its launch pad; the first return and capture of a ship’s upper stage; the first Starship launch from one of SpaceX’s launch pads still under construction on Florida’s Space Coast; and, possibly, the first revival of the V3 engine. NASA also expects SpaceX to complete initial construction of the crew cabin for its Starship variant of the lunar lander. SpaceX released renders of Starship’s interior last year, as well as images of the test elevator that astronauts are using to train for Starship’s departure to the lunar surface, but little else has been made public about the progress the company has made on the cabin design. Artist’s rendering of the cockpit of SpaceX’s Starship vehicle during an Artemis lunar mission for NASA. (Image credit: SpaceX) If initial cabin construction is completed by the end of the year, as NASA’s presentation suggested, SpaceX will use the first quarter of 2027 to complete the integration of the systems Starship will need to communicate with Orion during Artemis III and deliver a cabin simulator for astronauts to train in before the mission. SpaceX plans to continue Starship test flights into the second quarter of next year, completing a landing leg demonstration and beginning airlock testing in the crew cabin. Blue Origin’s lunar lander mockup is ready for NASA Artemis astronaut training. What to read next For Artemis III, SpaceX plans to fly one of its existing V3 Starship upper stages, with some slight modifications. Starship and Orion will dock as part of Artemis III, but the SpaceX vehicle will not be equipped with a crew cabin for the mission’s astronauts to enter. Between the end of this year and early next year, SpaceX is expected to complete the addition of a docking system and nose cowl to the Artemis III Starship vehicle, which NASA documents suggest has already completed its mechanical fit checks. Rendering of SpaceX Starship and Orion docking in low Earth orbit. (Image credit: SpaceX)Other items on SpaceX’s checklist leading up to Artemis III include the first propellant transfer demonstration with Starship in orbit. As the first launch vehicle and spacecraft designed for full reusability, Starship’s fuel limitations require its tanks to be full to fly beyond LEO. For a moon landing mission, this could mean up to a dozen launches of SpaceX’s Starship “tanker” spacecraft to an orbiting fuel depot, which will visit the Moon-bound Starship. To achieve this, however, SpaceX has to demonstrate that it can successfully transfer those cryogenic fuels into orbit and also store them effectively enough to avoid excessive boiling. Starship will not require any refueling flights to complete its goals for Artemis III, but SpaceX is expected to launch its first Starship tanker vehicle within months of that mission as it prepares for the Artemis IV lunar landing mission. To that end, a Starship uncrewed lunar lander variant is scheduled to launch sometime toward the end of the third quarter or early in the fourth, with an uncrewed lunar lander mission carried out before the end of 2027. Meanwhile, Blue Origin has its own set of milestones to meet as it develops its Blue Moon Mark 2 (MK2) lander, a 52-foot-tall (16-meter) spacecraft powered by three BE-7 engines. Unlike the basic V3 spacecraft that SpaceX will launch on Artemis III, Blue Origin plans to fly a complete test vehicle, incorporating the crew cabin, partial life support, flight software and other systems necessary to allow astronauts to enter the lander from Orion during their time docked in LEO. Astronauts will be able to enter Blue Moon from Orion to get a feel for the lander in zero gravity and test some of its systems. Rendering of Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lander and Orion before docking in low Earth orbit. (Image credit: Blue Moon) NASA’s timeline shows the company working to complete a series of manufacturing and testing milestones in the final months of 2026, including continued testing of BE-7 and qualification of Blue Moon’s BT-7 maneuvering boosters. The company is also facing its interim Artemis III design review and a critical design review for an upcoming landing demonstration mission in 2028. Blue Origin is also working to restore its pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Launch Complex-36 (LC-36) to working order and return its New Glenn rocket to flight, following a rocket explosion in May that caused extensive damage to the facility. NASA’s filing puts that milestone in the fourth quarter of 2026, a timeline the company has also been very vocal about maintaining. However, a recent Reuters report suggests that may not happen until early 2027. In early 2027, the company expects to complete the spacecraft’s communications systems and finalize its flight software, with assembly, integration and testing continuing into the second quarter. The first quarter of 2027 is also when Blue Origin’s Blue Moon MK1 lander (a smaller, uncrewed version of its MK2 successor) will launch to the lunar surface as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) robotic lunar mission program. During the second quarter of 2027, as the Artemis III mission approaches, Blue Origin is expected to complete the integration of its test lander with New Glenn and conclude qualification of its BE-7 engine. Over the next year, the company plans to continue construction and remodeling of its launch facilities and expects to have a new launch pad ready to support the upgraded and more powerful New Glenn 9×4 rocket by the end of the third quarter. The first flight of that rocket variant is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2027, along with a second MK1 lunar mission and the launch of an uncrewed MK2 demonstration lander. That spacecraft is expected to attempt its own uncrewed lunar landing in the first quarter of 2028, around the same time Blue Origin has scheduled a third MK1 flight. Like SpaceX, Blue Origin will need to demonstrate that its lander can safely reach the moon’s surface, operate there and return to lunar orbit before NASA will clear it to carry astronauts on a future Artemis mission. NASA’s overall schedule remains the same since the February renewal, with Artemis III expected to launch in mid-2027, followed by a crewed lunar landing on Artemis IV in 2028, and possibly another on Artemis V that same year. Although there may be changes on the horizon. NASA will host a press conference on Friday (Oct. 23) with Administrator Jared Isaacman and Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya, as well as Artemis program director Jeremy Parsons. During the event, which you can watch here on Space.com, they will discuss the status of upcoming lunar missions and an “Artemis acceleration.” SpaceX and Blue Origin still face tight schedules to complete their respective uncrewed landing demonstrations ahead of Artemis IV. With SpaceX targeting the fourth quarter of 2027 and Blue Origin the first quarter of 2028, both are pushing margins against NASA’s hopes of returning astronauts to the lunar surface that same year. Which company ultimately gets the green light for that first landing mission will depend on the progress each makes between now and then, and whether its landers can demonstrate the readiness NASA requires to safely transport astronauts to the moon’s surface and back.
