NASA Details Artemis III as 2027 Earth-orbit Rehearsal Using Blue Origin and SpaceX Lander Test Articles

NASA has publicly detailed Artemis III as a 2027 crewed test flight in low Earth orbit, not a mission to land astronauts on the moon. In an Oct. 23 article, “NASA’s Artemis III Mission to Test Future Moon Lander Operations,” the agency said the flight will rehearse key operations with lunar lander test articles from Blue Origin and SpaceX before NASA attempts a crewed moon landing in 2028.

The prime crew is made up of NASA astronauts Randy Bresnik, Frank Rubio and Andre Douglas, along with European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano. NASA named astronaut Bob Hines as a backup crew member in June. The mission’s central purpose, NASA said, is to test rendezvous, docking, habitation and operational procedures between the Orion spacecraft and commercial human landing system test articles, reducing risk before astronauts head for the lunar surface again. As NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said when the crew was named, “Every lesson we learn here gets us closer to landing on the Moon in 2028.”

Under the mission profile NASA released Friday, Blue Origin would launch a Blue Moon Mark 2 test article into low Earth orbit first. Days later, NASA would launch Orion atop its Space Launch System rocket from Kennedy Space Center.

Once in orbit, Orion would rendezvous and dock with the Blue Moon test article for about two days. The crew would enter the lander and evaluate its systems. Orion would then undock and later rendezvous and dock with a SpaceX Starship human landing system test article for about one day before returning to Earth. NASA said the flight is planned to last roughly 14 days, though the exact duration will depend on real-time operations. Orion would splash down in the Pacific for recovery by NASA and U.S. Navy teams.

NASA said Artemis III will do more than practice docking. The mission is also meant to test integrated hardware and software interfaces, life-support and habitation systems, communications links and propulsion checks. The agency also said the crew will carry out a cellular biology experiment and test concepts related to returning lunar samples.

The plan formalizes a major redesign NASA announced on Feb. 27, when it converted Artemis III from a planned lunar landing attempt into an Earth-orbit demonstration mission. Under that revised sequence, the first crewed lunar landing is now targeted for Artemis IV in 2028. NASA has framed the change as a step-by-step approach following the successful completion of Artemis II, the crewed Orion lunar flyby mission, in April 2026.

The updated architecture also underscores NASA’s dependence on commercial partners to build the vehicles astronauts would eventually use near and on the moon. By using test articles from both Blue Origin and SpaceX on Artemis III, NASA is turning the mission into a full-scale rehearsal of how Orion would interact with privately developed lunar landers before committing a crew to a landing attempt.

That emphasis on rehearsal and validation comes as outside watchdogs, including the Government Accountability Office and NASA’s Office of Inspector General, have documented schedule, technical and management risks in human landing system development.

“Every piece of this mission in Earth orbit is designed to reduce risk before we put astronauts back on the Moon,” Jeremy Parsons, NASA’s Artemis program manager, said in NASA’s article.