Artemis Moon Landing: NASA Changes Lander Plans for 2028

NASA has changed how its commercial Moon landers will meet astronauts in space, in a bid to land Americans on the lunar surface in 2028. At a briefing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday, 23 October 2026, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman and other agency leaders set out revised plans for SpaceX’s Starship and Blue Origin’s Blue Moon landers, and confirmed that the agency will pick which company goes first based on readiness.

The update also detailed Artemis III, which NASA says will send four astronauts to low Earth orbit next year to test docking with both landers, ahead of Artemis IV, the first Artemis mission planned to land on the Moon.

What Did NASA Announce About the 2028 Moon Landing?

Until now, the plan was for the landers and NASA’s Orion spacecraft to meet in a near-rectilinear halo orbit, a long, looping path around the Moon. To speed up development, NASA says the landers and Orion will instead meet in an orbit that differs for each company, depending on their systems.

“We are executing President Trump’s National Space Policy to complete the long-awaited return of American astronauts to the lunar surface in 2028 and establish a Moon Base,” Isaacman said. “NASA has no intention of sitting idly by as all the pieces come together. That is not how Apollo succeeded, and it is not how the near-impossible is achieved.”

NASA said that, based on lander readiness, it will decide which company is selected first to carry astronauts to the surface in 2028, with a second crewed landing opportunity to follow. Both companies must first fly an uncrewed demonstration mission.

How Will SpaceX’s Starship Lander Work?

SpaceX will still refuel in space. Several “tanker” Starships will transfer super-cold propellant to a “depot” Starship in low Earth orbit, which will then fuel the Starship lander. Under the new plan, the lander will wait for Orion and its crew in Earth orbit. After docking, Starship will fire its engines to push the combined lander and Orion stack to low lunar orbit, and NASA is modifying Orion to allow this.

NASA said using low lunar orbit will significantly reduce the amount of propellant Starship needs to gather in space, and cut the time it takes astronauts leaving the surface to rejoin Orion.

How Will Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Lander Work?

For a 2028 landing, Blue Origin will postpone in-space refuelling and instead use three transfer stages, based on its Mark 1 and Mark 2 hardware, to send the Blue Moon Mark 2 Alpha lander to the Moon. The stages work like a multistage rocket, separating as each runs out of propellant, and carry the lander into an elliptical polar orbit around the Moon.

NASA said this orbit offers faster returns from the lunar surface to Orion, reduces the lander’s propellant needs and makes the most of the SLS rocket’s performance. Orion would then dock with the lander, and two astronauts would descend to the Moon’s South Pole region.

• Artemis III (2027): four astronauts test docking with both landers in low Earth orbit.
• Artemis IV (2028): first planned Artemis crewed landing.
• Landing crew: two astronauts on the surface, two remain aboard Orion.
• Moonwalks: two, each about two hours, using Axiom Space suits.

Why Does This Matter?

The changes are designed to remove complex steps from the critical path to a landing, as NASA pushes to speed up its return to the Moon. Both landers remain in development and must still pass demonstration flights and NASA certification, so timelines could change.

“NASA and our lunar lander providers Blue Origin and SpaceX have been working hand in hand to ensure we can return American astronauts to the Moon by 2028,” said Jeremy Parsons, NASA’s Artemis programme manager.

For more space and science news, see our reports on the Euclid comet discovery and an AI model that maps mass extinctions in the fossil record.

Featured image: from left, George Alderman, Jared Isaacman, Amit Kshatriya and Jeremy Parsons at the Artemis briefing at Kennedy Space Center on 23 October 2026, by NASA/Cory S. Huston, public domain.

Sources

• NASA — NASA, Partners Accelerate Lander Development for 2028 Moon Missions (23 October 2026).
• NASA — NASA Shares Artemis Acceleration Plans for Moon Missions (23 October 2026).