Before Artemis astronauts land on the surface of the Moon in 2028, NASA will conduct the Artemis III demonstration mission in 2027, allowing teams on Earth and in orbit to practice rendezvous and docking operations between commercial human landing systems and the Orion spacecraft. Data from that mission, along with future uncrewed demonstration missions to the Moon, will support astronaut safety and the success of crewed lunar landing missions.

NASA is working with two American companies to develop human landing systems that will safely transport astronauts from lunar orbit to the surface of the Moon and back for future Artemis missions. For Artemis III, both SpaceX and Blue Origin will fly test versions, or test articles, of the crewed landers that will be used for future moon landings. The lander test articles will be launched by commercial rockets, while the Artemis III crew will be launched into low-Earth orbit in Orion atop the agency’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket.

NASA and human landing systems providers have been working closely to plan and determine the capabilities of the Artemis III mission. With missions quickly approaching, both SpaceX and Blue Origin are optimizing hardware availability and capacity. SpaceX plans to use the company’s latest version of Starship and the foundation of future Starship HLS, called Version 3, while Blue Origin will test its planned HLS crew cabin, allowing each company to apply lessons learned ahead of manned and uncrewed missions to the Moon.

“Each human landing system provider has taken a different approach to the Artemis III mission,” said Steve Creech, Human Landing System program manager at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “Ultimately, SpaceX and Blue Origin have presented a list of aggressive objectives and goals intended to complement upcoming unmanned demonstration missions to the Moon so that we can gain understanding and confidence in the spacecraft and launch vehicles in advance of a crewed landing. The lander prototype designs will inform future development efforts and will continue to mature over the next year.”

For the Artemis III mission, the Blue Moon test lander will build on Blue Origin’s current architecture for its Mark 2 crewed lander, incorporating all major flight and avionics software and control systems to ensure that the flight operations of this demonstration mission can be directly translated to crewed lunar flights. Up to two crew members, dressed in orange Orion crew survival system suits, will open the hatch to enter the Blue Origin test lander. Production hardware must incorporate many of the same systems and subsystems, including an environmental control and life support system (ECLSS), a crew cabin, and avionics.

The Blue Origin lander will also fly with an instrumented lunar surface spacesuit mass simulator. Like the adapted “Moonikin” mannequin that flew aboard Orion during the Artemis I uncrewed test flight, the low-fidelity spacesuit mass simulator will provide real-time information about the environment inside the Blue Moon crew cabin.

SpaceX’s Starship lander test article will use a Starship version 3, currently in production and testing, with an additional docking system installed on the nose of the 171-foot (52 m) spacecraft, allowing NASA and SpaceX to evaluate how the entire integrated Orion stack and the Starship test lander interact. NASA and SpaceX are identifying control and communications tests for the Artemis III mission. Astronauts will not enter the Starship test lander during Artemis III.

NASA, SpaceX and Blue Origin will launch three of the world’s most powerful rockets within a short period of time of each other, exercising ground processing, launch equipment and facilities, as well as control centers, networking and data sharing at key sites across the country during two separate, consecutive rendezvous and docking maneuvers between Orion and the lander test articles, prior to a safe landing of the Artemis III crew on Orion.

“Artemis III will be a highly choreographed dance with a demanding launch sequence across multiple launch pads and equally demanding mission operations for our ground and flight crews, making it one of the most complex and ambitious missions NASA has ever undertaken,” said Jeremy Parsons, Artemis program manager. “The demonstration mission will lay the groundwork before our next big leap. NASA’s expertise in systems engineering and integration, as well as launch and low-Earth orbit mission operations, will tie the mission together.”

For future crewed missions to the Moon, NASA and one of the lander’s commercial partners will execute a “dual launch campaign,” prepositioning the lander in orbit to await a crewed Orion, launched at SLS. Launching all three rockets one after the other for Artemis III provides a unique opportunity to practice launch processing and operations.

Blue Origin’s lander test article is scheduled to launch first and will be able to remain in space for up to 30 days, allowing for in-orbit checkouts ahead of the launch of SLS and Orion from Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Blue Origin test article will be launched on a set trajectory to reach a designated “parking” orbit for these systems checks.

Jeremy Parsons

Artemisa Program Manager

Following the completion of Blue Origin’s rendezvous and docking operations testing and the crewed launch of Artemis III on SLS, SpaceX will launch its Starship lander test article to rendezvous with Orion and its crew for its in-orbit testing phase.

Throughout the Artemis III mission, Orion will fly in a circular orbit. All three rockets will have more launch opportunities than available for a lunar mission and will be able to reach the mission’s designated altitude in a single launch.

During docking and undocking operations, Orion and the Artemis III crew will use the lander’s test articles as targets, while Orion will operate as the pursuer spacecraft. This is the same configuration planned for future crew landing missions to the Moon.

NASA will ensure both test landers are mission-ready and the crew safe ahead of Artemis III. These verifications will be based on functional and performance requirements for the test lander designs and hazard controls for hardware and software, ensuring that Artemis III astronauts inside Orion are safe during both docking phases of the mission.

SpaceX and Blue Origin have already tested their docking capabilities for their respective ground landers. SpaceX’s docking capability was rated in 2023; Blue Origin conducted ground development tests of its pressurized docking system earlier this year.

A key difference between the docking capabilities of both lander test articles will be the docking location. Orion will dock along the side of the Blue Moon test lander, adjacent to the crew cabin. Later, Orion will dock head-to-head with SpaceX’s giant test lander.

Cross-spacecraft software testing will help demonstrate that Orion and commercial human landing system prototypes can be found at a precise time and place in space. When Orion docks with the Blue Moon test lander, the Orion spacecraft software will control the docked spacecraft. Meanwhile, SpaceX’s test article will control the docked spacecraft during the second part of the mission. During the docking phases, NASA teams and commercial partners will be able to test hardware and software interoperability, as well as the dynamics of how the integrated lander and Orion spacecraft move in space.

Through the Artemis program, NASA will send astronauts to explore the Moon in search of scientific discoveries, economic benefits and to lay the foundation for the first manned missions to Mars, for the benefit of all.

amberjacobson
Headquarters, Washington
240.298.1832
amber.c.jacobson@nasa.gov

Corinne Beckinger
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama.
256-544-0034
corinne.m.beckinger@nasa.gov