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NASA Urges Faster Progress for Artemis

While SpaceX fine-tunes its next launch, pressure is mounting from NASA, which is relying on the company to build a lunar landing system for the Artemis program.

SpaceX and Blue Origin both hold contracts under NASA’s Human Landing System (HLS) program to develop crewed landers capable of delivering astronauts to the lunar surface.

In October, then-acting NASA administrator and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the agency would reopen SpaceX’s contract for the first crewed lunar landing mission — then called Artemis 3 — and seek proposals from both companies on how they might accelerate development.

The companies have since submitted those plans.

According to NASA administrator Jared Isaacman, the agency has accepted them, though details have not been made public.

Artemis Mission Plans Shift

NASA has also revised the broader architecture of its Artemis program.

On Feb. 27, the agency announced that Artemis 3 will now take place in mid-2027 as a mission in low Earth orbit, where the Orion spacecraft will dock with lunar landers developed by SpaceX and potentially Blue Origin.

Actual attempts to land astronauts on the moon will follow later missions — Artemis 4 in early 2028 and Artemis 5 in late 2028.

Isaacman said both companies have presented ideas to move faster while maintaining the program’s long-term goals.

“Both HLS providers have offered solutions to accelerate their plans without compromising on the grander objective,” he said during the Feb. 27 announcement. “We need to build out an enduring presence so that, when we return to the moon, we have the capability to stay.”

Still, Isaacman declined to outline the specifics of those acceleration proposals.

Launch Rate Seen as Key Indicator

During a Jan. 17 briefing tied to the rollout of the Artemis 2 mission, Isaacman suggested that the public will be able to gauge progress by watching how frequently rockets lift off.

“The way the public can best follow along and probably measure progress is just observing launch rate,” he said.

In the end, the rhythm of liftoffs — like drumbeats before a giant leap — may signal whether the massive Starship system can deliver what NASA needs: a spacecraft capable of ferrying astronauts from lunar orbit down to the dusty surface of the moon.