NASA shakes up its Artemis program to speed up lunar return
arstechnica.com
Launching SLS every three and a half years or so is not a recipe for success."
  • llamacoffee@lemmy.worldOPMEnglish
    6·
    4 days ago

    Cancellation of the Exploration Upper Stage and Block IB upgrade for SLS rocket

    Artemis II and Artemis III missions will use the SLS rocket with existing upper stage

    Artemis IV, V (and any additional missions, should there be) will use a “standardized” upper stage

    Artemis III will no longer land on the Moon; rather Orion will launch on SLS and dock with Starship and/or Blue Moon landers in low-Earth orbit

    Artemis IV is now the first lunar landing mission

    NASA will seek to fly Artemis missions annually, starting with Artemis III in “mid” 2027, followed by at least one lunar landing in 2028

    NASA is working with SpaceX and Blue Origin to accelerate their development of commercial lunar landers for Artemis IV and beyond