More than half a century after the last Apollo astronaut left the Moon, NASA is going back — this time, it says, to stay. The Artemis program is the agency’s campaign to return astronauts to the lunar surface, build lasting infrastructure there, and use the Moon as a proving ground for eventual human missions to Mars. After delays and a major architectural overhaul, the program now has a revised roadmap. Here it is, mission by mission.

Why Go Back to the Moon?

Artemis has three stated goals. The first is science: the Moon’s south pole, the program’s target region, holds water ice in permanently shadowed craters — a scientific treasure and a potential resource for drinking water, breathable air and even rocket fuel. The second is presence: unlike Apollo’s brief visits, Artemis aims to establish a sustainable foothold with habitats, rovers and regular missions. The third is Mars: the Moon is close enough for rescue and resupply, making it the ideal place to test the life support, radiation protection and surface operations that a Mars mission will require.

There is also geopolitics. With China pursuing its own crewed lunar ambitions, the return to the Moon has become a contest over who sets the rules for humanity’s expansion beyond Earth.

The Hardware: SLS, Orion, Gateway and Landers

Artemis rests on four hardware pillars. The Space Launch System (SLS) is NASA’s heavy-lift rocket — the most powerful the agency has built — designed to send the Orion crew capsule toward the Moon. Orion is the deep-space crew spacecraft: it carries up to four astronauts, sustains them for up to three weeks, and returns them through Earth’s atmosphere at lunar-return speeds.

The Gateway is a planned small space station in lunar orbit that will serve as a staging point — crews will dock there before descending to the surface on later missions. And the Human Landing System (HLS) is the actual Moon lander, developed commercially: NASA contracted SpaceX’s Starship-derived lander and later brought in Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lander as a second provider, betting that competition will control costs and add redundancy.

The Missions: Where Things Stand

Artemis I (November 2022) was the uncrewed shakedown cruise: SLS and Orion flew to the Moon and back over about 25 days, validating the rocket, the capsule and the ground systems. It succeeded.

Artemis II is the first crewed flight — four astronauts looping around the Moon without landing, the first humans to travel beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972. The crew was named as NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, plus Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. After repeated delays, including a helium-flow issue that sent the rocket back to the assembly building in early 2026, the mission flew in the spring of 2026.

Artemis III was originally meant to be the landing. Under the architecture NASA unveiled in early 2026, it has been recast as a roughly 2027 low-Earth-orbit mission to test rendezvous and docking with the commercial lunar landers — a dress rehearsal in safer orbital territory. Artemis IV, now targeted for around 2028, is slated to become the first crewed lunar landing of the program, with the Gateway station entering the picture. Beyond that, NASA talks of roughly annual missions building toward a sustained surface presence.

A caveat any space watcher will insist on: Artemis schedules have slipped repeatedly, and each of these dates should be read as the agency’s current plan, not a promise.

The International Coalition: The Artemis Accords

NASA is not going alone. The Artemis Accords — bilateral agreements the United States has signed with more than 30 countries — set out principles for peaceful, transparent lunar exploration, including norms on resource extraction and avoiding harmful interference. Partner space agencies contribute hardware and astronauts: the European Space Agency provides Orion’s service module, Canada contributes robotics, Japan is developing a pressurized rover, and others supply Gateway modules and science instruments.

The Accords are also a diplomatic instrument — a Western-led framework for lunar governance that China and Russia have not joined, having proposed their own joint lunar research station concept instead. The Moon, like the Arctic, is becoming an arena where competing visions of international order play out.

The Challenges

Artemis faces formidable obstacles. Cost is the first: SLS is enormously expensive per launch, which is why NASA has been pushed toward commercial partnerships and higher flight cadence. Technology is the second: the Starship-derived lander must still prove orbital refueling and lunar landing at unprecedented scale. Safety is the third: an independent safety panel raised concerns that partly motivated the 2026 architectural rethink. And politics is the fourth — the program’s funding and direction shift with administrations, as the overhaul itself demonstrated.

FAQs

When will astronauts land on the Moon again?
Under NASA’s current plan, the first crewed Artemis landing is targeted for the Artemis IV mission around 2028. Schedules have slipped before, so treat dates as plans rather than promises.

Who is flying on Artemis II?
NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman (commander), Victor Glover (pilot) and Christina Koch (mission specialist), plus Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen — the first crewed lunar flyby since 1972.

Why is Artemis targeting the Moon’s south pole?
The south pole combines near-constant sunlight on crater rims (useful for solar power) with permanently shadowed craters that likely harbor water ice — scientifically fascinating and potentially usable as a resource.

What are the Artemis Accords?
U.S.-led bilateral agreements, now with 30-plus signatory countries, establishing principles for peaceful lunar exploration: transparency, interoperability, emergency assistance, and norms for extracting space resources.

How is Artemis different from Apollo?
Apollo was a flags-and-footprints sprint with expendable hardware. Artemis aims for sustainability — reusable commercial landers, an orbital staging station, surface habitats — and explicitly frames the Moon as practice for Mars.

Compiled by the Khabar 24h Editorial Desk from publicly available sources.