Put it in pencil: NASA's Artemis III mission will launch no earlier than late 2027

Now, it’s looking more like late 2027, at the earliest, for Artemis III. “I’ve received responses from both vendors, both SpaceX and Blue Origin, to meet our needs for a late 2027 rendezvous, docking, and test of the interoperability of both landers in advance of a landing attempt in 2028,” Isaacman said Monday. Both companies have multibillion-dollar contracts to develop and deliver human-rated landers to NASA for use on Artemis missions. Both vehicles need to be refueled in space in order to fly to the Moon. This added complexity is not required for an Earth orbit mission. “The taxpayers are making a very big investment to both SpaceX and Blue Origin’s Human Landing System (HLS) capability,” Isaacman said in a hearing before the subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee responsible for NASA’s budget. “I would also appreciate that both those companies are investing well in excess of that, as well.” NASA would also like to fly at least one of Axiom’s commercial spacesuits on Artemis III to give astronauts a chance to try it out in space before they need it for walking on the Moon. The suits are undergoing tests on the ground and in NASA’s spacewalk training pool in Houston. Isaacman said Monday that NASA could also send an Axiom suit to the International Space Station for testing by the end of next year. And then there’s SLS and Orion, the two pieces of the Artemis architecture that performed so well on Artemis II. Technicians at Kennedy Space Center in Florida will soon install the heat shield onto the Orion spacecraft for Artemis III. This heat shield has a modified design after engineers discovered unexpected erosion of the Artemis I heat shield on a test flight in 2022. Then, sometime this summer, ground teams at Kennedy will connect the Orion crew module to the ship’s service module before preparing the spacecraft for fueling. NASA and its contractors will also study and resolve a handful of issues encountered on Artemis II, including a helium leak in the service module propulsion system and problems dumping urine overboard. The core stage for the Artemis III mission’s SLS rocket arrived at Kennedy on Monday, pulling up to dock just a couple of hours before Isaacman’s testimony before Congress. It sailed aboard a NASA barge from the Michoud Assembly Facility in Louisiana, where teams manufactured and integrated the core stage’s propellant tanks. Once inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy, the stage will be prepared to receive its engine section with four RS-25 main engines. That will set the stage for NASA’s go-ahead to begin stacking the SLS rocket from Artemis III.