NASA's Artemis program

Back to the Moon

Artemis is NASA's program to return people to the Moon and, this time, to stay longer. It is named after Apollo's twin sister in Greek mythology, a nod to the missions that last landed astronauts there in 1972.

The goals are scientific and practical. Scientists want samples from regions Apollo never visited. Engineers want to learn how to live and work far from Earth, using the Moon as a training ground for future trips to Mars.

The hardware: SLS and Orion

The Space Launch System, or SLS, is a heavy-lift rocket built to send the Orion capsule toward the Moon. Its orange core stage burns liquid hydrogen and oxygen, helped by two solid rocket boosters for the first two minutes.

Orion is the crew capsule. It carries up to four astronauts and has a heat shield made to survive reentry at nearly 25,000 mph. Behind it sits the European Service Module, built for ESA, which supplies power, propulsion, air and water. Orion itself cannot land on the Moon; commercial landers will do that job.

Artemis I and Artemis II

Artemis I launched on November 16, 2022, with no crew. Orion swung around the Moon, spent several days in a distant orbit and splashed down in the Pacific on December 11 after about 25 days. Engineers later studied unexpected wear on the heat shield and changed the reentry path for the next flight.

Artemis II launched on April 1, 2026, with NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen. They looped around the far side of the Moon, passing about 4,000 miles above its surface, and traveled about 252,000 miles from Earth, beating the Apollo 13 record from 1970.

The crew splashed down off San Diego on April 10, 2026, after a nearly 10-day flight. Koch became the first woman, Glover the first person of color and Hansen the first non-American to travel to the Moon's vicinity.

Artemis III and the first landings

Plans changed in 2026. As of 2026, NASA plans Artemis III as a mission in low Earth orbit, targeted for 2027, where an Orion crew would practice docking with test versions of two commercial lunar landers.

The first crewed landing of the program is now targeted for 2028, with further missions planned after that. Two astronauts would ride a lander from lunar orbit to the surface, spend several days exploring and return to Orion for the trip home. Dates for crewed spaceflight often move, so treat them as targets.

Why the south pole

Apollo landed near the Moon's equator. Artemis aims for the region near the south pole, where some craters never see sunlight. Their floors stay colder than −300°F and are thought to trap water ice delivered over billions of years.

Ice could give drinking water, breathable oxygen and even rocket fuel, which would make long stays far easier. Nearby high ridges get sunlight most of the time, a useful source of solar power. The terrain is rough and the long shadows make landing harder.

Gateway and the plan for a base

For years, Artemis included Gateway, a small space station that would orbit the Moon and serve as a staging point. In 2026, NASA announced it would stop work on Gateway and focus its funding on building infrastructure on the lunar surface instead.

What replaces it is still taking shape as of 2026. The broad aim is a base camp with rovers, power systems and habitats near the south pole, supplied by a regular series of missions.

An international effort

Artemis is led by NASA but relies on partners. Europe builds Orion's service module, Canada provided an astronaut for Artemis II and robotics expertise, and Japan is developing a pressurized rover. Private companies are building the landers, spacesuits and robotic delivery missions.

Many countries have also signed the Artemis Accords, a set of principles for peaceful and transparent exploration of the Moon and beyond. You can follow upcoming launches and watch the Moon itself with binoculars, picking out the rugged southern highlands where astronauts hope to land.