NASA targets 2028 Artemis IV lunar landing as it plans Artemis III docking test
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The Facts
- NASA plans to launch Artemis III next summer for an Earth-orbit docking test.
- Artemis III is planned as a two-week mission carrying four astronauts.
- Artemis III will remain in Earth orbit and will not travel to the Moon.
- The Artemis III test will involve lunar landers developed by SpaceX and Blue Origin.
- NASA is targeting Artemis IV for a crewed lunar landing in 2028.
- NASA’s longer-term goal is sustained astronaut missions from a lunar base near the Moon’s south pole.
- NASA has not yet chosen whether SpaceX or Blue Origin will provide the lunar lander for the 2028 landing.
Context
What will Artemis III do?
NASA plans Artemis III as a 14-day, four-astronaut mission in low Earth orbit to test docking between Orion and landers from Blue Origin and SpaceX; it will not include a lunar trip. ECOticias.com CIO News
When does NASA plan to land astronauts on the Moon?
NASA says Artemis IV is scheduled to carry out the crewed lunar landing in 2028. Weather Channel ECOticias.com Daily Sabah
Where Left and Right agree, and where they split
- Where Left and Right agree
- Neither side disputes that no lander has been chosen for the 2028 crewed landing, making that decision — not the docking test itself — the real hinge point.
- Where Left and Right split
- Guarding the lander selection against vendor pressure to protect crew safety, or using competition between SpaceX and Blue Origin to secure lasting American presence at the lunar south pole.
- Why they won’t converge
- The divide is about trust in NASA's selection process, not the mission facts: left questions whether 2028 lander choice will rest on safety and durable capability, right trusts competitive vendor performance to decide it fairly.
- Watch for
- Watch for NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel to issue its formal recommendation urging a reassessment of the lunar landing architecture, flagged after its October 22, 2026 warning about unproven cryogenic propellant transfer.satnews.com
How left and right read it
Keeping Artemis III in Earth orbit to rehearse docking with the SpaceX and Blue Origin landers is exactly that discipline. Yet no lander has been picked for the 2028 landing, so the question worth pressing is whether that choice gets made on crew safety and lasting public capability, or on whichever vendor pushes hardest.
The Moon's south pole is strategic ground. Sustained American missions from a base there belong to whoever actually lands and stays, so the fact that no lander has been chosen for the 2028 landing is leverage rather than drift — SpaceX and Blue Origin each have to prove it on the four-astronaut docking test next summer. Fly that test, pick on demonstrated performance, and hold 2028.
The receipts — 31 sources
Independent coverage (31)
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