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NASA announced the crew of four astronauts for its upcoming Artemis 3 mission during a Tuesday announcement, an important stepping stone in its ambitions to return humans to the lunar surface.
The space agency also elaborated on what the mission, which is still slated for some time next year, will entail. Instead of taking one big step to the Moon, as originally envisioned, the astronauts will be traveling only to Earth’s orbit inside NASA’s Orion capsule, where they’ll rendezvous and board both Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lander and SpaceX’s Starship in quick succession over a span of three days.
It’s a highly complex juggling act involving several docking and undocking procedures that will require a lot of things to go right the first time. Artemis 3 is designed to lay the groundwork for the first crewed landing attempt in over half a century, which is tentatively scheduled for 2028. But whether the elaborate dance in our planet’s orbit will ultimately work out as NASA is envisioning is anything but a guarantee, given the litany of corporate failure points involved.
For one, the elephant in the room during this week’s announcement was an enormous explosion that recently rocked Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket, the launch platform designed to deliver its Blue Moon lander to space. The thunderous May 28 mushroom cloud dealt significant damage to Launch Complex 36 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, leading to questions of whether it, and Blue Origin’s rocket, will be ready in time for Artemis 3. (NASA is also hoping to send an uncrewed Blue Moon lander to the Moon long before that as well.)
The incident appeared to be top of mind for those speaking during today’s announcement, indicating NASA was painfully aware of the optics. Just days before the explosion, NASA had released sweeping plans for the buildout of a Moon base.
Blue Origin lunar SVP John Couluris said during the event that the company is “making excellent progress on the investigation and pad cleanup,” adding that “we’ll begin rebuilding” and “continuing construction” afterwards.
“We are confident that New Glenn will be ready for Artemis 3, together with Blue Origin, but NASA is stepping in and bringing all of our expertise and capabilities to bear,” Artemis program manager Jeremy Parsons said during today’s announcement.
NASA administrator Jared Isaacman sounded equally convinced, telling reporters that he was “extremely” confident of the agency’s timelines for both Artemis 3 and 4 in 2027 and 2028 respectively.
SpaceX also still has a lot left to prove before astronauts can dock with its Starship spacecraft as soon as next year. The Elon Musk-led company is looking to fly a modified V3 model, which differs from its Moonbound Human Landing Systems variant, for Artemis 3.
However, Starship V3 remains a work in progress at the time of writing. It has yet to travel to space and survive its rocket-aided soft landing in one piece. A test flight in late May resulted in a massive fireball in the Indian Ocean following splashdown.
SpaceX is also hoping to prove that it can refuel its Starship in space ahead of Artemis 3, an integral part of its plans to get all the way to the Moon during Artemis 4. (It’s unclear if it’s still a requirement for NASA’s reimagined Artemis 3 mission.)
In short, while NASA already has a successful crewed mission around the Moon under its belt, proving the flightworthiness of its Space Launch System and Orion capsule, setbacks plaguing its corporate partners could end up delaying NASA’s highly ambitious plans.
Artemis 3 is the culmination of decades of work and contributions from countless contractors that will all need to come together seamlessly. Considering we’re already over halfway through 2026, we wouldn’t be surprised if NASA will need to once again push back the timelines.
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