NASA Says Artemis III Remains on Track for Summer 2027 Launch
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Florida — NASA said on Friday afternoon that it remains on track to launch the four Artemis III astronauts in summer 2027 from Kennedy Space Center on a 14-day mission in low-Earth orbit, where the crew will dock with and test lunar landers built by Blue Origin and SpaceX. The mission is a key testbed step before Artemis IV sends astronauts to land on the Moon in 2028. (GSM, based on reporting by Florida Today)
Under the sequence NASA outlined at its "Artemis Acceleration" briefing, Blue Origin will first launch a Blue Moon Mark 2 test lander into orbit from Launch Complex 36A at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. NASA will then launch the crew aboard the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft from pad 39B; Orion will dock with the Blue Moon lander and the astronauts will enter its crew cabin to test life-support systems and controls. SpaceX will next launch a Starship test lander from pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center, and Orion will undock from Blue Moon and dock with Starship for about two hours, before reentering Earth's atmosphere and splashing down at sea. The mission will involve three heavy rockets: SLS, Blue Origin's New Glenn and SpaceX's Starship.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman led the October 23 news conference at the Kennedy Space Center press site. The agency aims to return American astronauts to the lunar surface and eventually build Moon Base infrastructure capable of supporting a long-term human presence, ahead of future trips to Mars.
In April, the Artemis II mission sent four astronauts around the far side of the Moon and back on a 10-day flight, traveling 252,756 miles from Earth and breaking the record for the farthest distance humans have reached into space. NASA also reported last week that engineering analysis confirmed Orion's heat shield performed as expected, with a significant reduction in cracks and char loss compared with Artemis I, and that its spacesuit provider Axiom Space is developing a second, lighter "Sortie suit" — roughly half the weight of the primary suit — to enable astronaut moonwalks on shorter outings.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：太空发射系统（SLS）火箭搭载 Orion 飞船执行 Artemis I 飞行测试时发射升空（资料图）。Photo: NASA's Space Launch System rocket carrying the Orion spacecraft launches on the Artemis I flight test (file photo). NASA, public domain.
