NASA's programme to return astronauts to the Moon, announced in 2017 and named after the Moon-goddess sister of the sun-god Apollo. The programme was partly conceived to give the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion spacecraft a purpose, both of which are as much Congressional pork projects as anything else. The SLS is built largely from upcycled Space Shuttle components, with a view to preserving jobs after the final flight of the Shuttle in 2011. Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at the Planetary Society, has observed that "Artemis is not optimised for cost or efficiency, it is optimised for political survival."
An uncrewed test flight of the Orion capsule, launched in 2022. The mission suffered repeated electrical glitches, briefly lost contact with Earth and, most worryingly, sustained severe and unexpected damage to its heat shield during re-entry—large potholes scattered across its face. The shield did not fail, but it did not behave as intended. The subsequent investigation delayed the next mission by more than a year. NASA's workaround was to tweak the capsule's re-entry trajectory rather than alter the shield itself.
The first crewed Artemis mission, carrying four astronauts—three American, one Canadian—on a "free-return" trajectory that loops round the Moon in a figure of eight before its gravity slings them back to Earth for a splashdown in the Pacific, roughly ten days after launch. The crew capsule was named Integrity. Unlike the Apollo missions, which flew straight to the Moon from low-Earth orbit, Orion first boosted into a much higher orbit from which it was easier to change orbital planes. It was a test flight—no lunar landing was planned. Jared Isaacman, NASA's administrator, had warned: "We are in a great competition…if we make a mistake, we may never catch up."
On April 11th 2026 Integrity splashed down in the Pacific after what NASA described as a "textbook" re-entry. The crew's elegant figure-of-eight trajectory took them past the Moon and farther from Earth than any previous astronauts. During their passage over the lunar far side the astronauts observed Mare Orientale, a dark bullseye set among concentric mountain ranges—ripples of rock left by the impact of a sizeable asteroid less than 4bn years ago—and Pierazzo, a far-side crater named after Elisabetta Pierazzo, a specialist in the study of impact craters. They also identified a fresh and previously unrecorded crater on the edge of the far side, which the crew recommended be officially named Carroll, after the late wife of the mission commander, Reid Wiseman. On April 6th, as the crew passed the Moon at a far greater distance than Apollo 8 had in 1968, they captured a photograph of the Earth setting behind the Moon—a modern counterpart to Bill Anders's iconic "Earthrise" shot from Apollo 8's Christmas Eve 1968 mission. Unlike Anders's spontaneous image, the new picture was carefully pre-visualised by NASA, as the trajectory gave the crew only one chance at the shot. The mission produced more by way of emotion than science, but reminded millions that human spaceflight can still inspire.
Originally the mission planned to land astronauts on the lunar surface, but under Jared Isaacman's restructuring it has been repurposed as a mission to test lunar landers in Earth orbit. Because Orion capsules are heavier than Apollo command modules and the SLS is less capable than Apollo's Saturn V, the landing missions must be split in two. The Human Landing System (HLS)—contracted to SpaceX—will be launched first; only once it is near the Moon will a crew-carrying rocket follow, linking up with it.
The first two crewed lunar landings. Lunar landers built by SpaceX (owned by Elon Musk) and Blue Origin (by Jeff Bezos) are headed for a fly-off. After Artemis V, NASA will work with commercial providers on much cheaper and more reliable ways to put astronauts into space, effectively phasing out the SLS.
A space station of debatable utility that was to orbit near the Moon. Originally conceived as a way station where astronauts could transfer between Earth-to-Moon and Moon-to-surface spacecraft. Under NASA's March 2026 "Ignition" restructuring, Gateway was declared paused indefinitely rather than cancelled—though the agency says astronaut transfers will now take place in low Earth orbit instead. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who had previously reinserted Gateway funding after the White House tried to cut it, appears reconciled; his already-appropriated money will be redirected to the Moon base.
Some Gateway components were to be contributed by international partners: the European Space Agency (ESA) was working on refuelling and communications equipment and collaborated with JAXA (Japan) on a habitation module; Canada was to provide a robot arm; the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (UAE) had taken on an airlock. In each case the quid pro quo was a promise by NASA to take partner astronauts to Gateway—a promise now unlikely to be kept. NASA says it will work to rework partner contributions into Moon-base infrastructure.
One already-developed component—the Power and Propulsion Element (PPE), being built by Lanteris Space Systems—will be repurposed as the heart of the SR-1 Freedom mission to Mars.
On January 13th 2026 NASA said it would develop a nuclear reactor to power a potential outpost on the Moon. On March 24th 2026 Jared Isaacman outlined concrete plans at an event NASA called "Ignition". Phase one will send as many as 15 robotic landers to scout sites for the base. Phases two and three will see astronauts visit the chosen site every six months, building habitats that allow prolonged stays with the aid of robot helpers. The plan makes the Moon more central to NASA's objectives over the coming decade while diminishing the importance of the first crewed landing.
Space Reactor 1 Freedom will be the first NASA spacecraft with a nuclear reactor on board and the first to use a reactor to propel itself beyond Earth orbit. The PPE's electric thrusters, originally designed for Gateway and powered by solar panels, will instead be powered by a small nuclear reactor. SR-1 is planned to launch when Mars and Earth align at the end of 2028. Upon reaching Mars orbit it will drop three small helicopter drones into the atmosphere to scout a potential landing site for a future crewed mission. The mission heralds a new commitment to nuclear power for deep-space propulsion, Moon-base operations and eventually human exploration of Mars. Steve Sinacore, NASA's official in charge of the programme, acknowledged that since the mid-1960s NASA has spent over $20bn on 12 nuclear programmes that produced essentially nothing.
The sky is blue so we know where to stop mowing.