Artemis 2028 Moon Landing Is On Track — But There's A Catch
NASA wants Artemis back to Saturn V levels of progress.
After an expected blast-off window of February 2026 and then early March, the launch of Artemis II has been delayed to sometime in April 2026. This much-touted return trip to the Moon has been plagued with technical difficulties concerning the SLS rocket, including recent problems with the flow of liquid hydrogen. So, after the rollback of Artemis II on February 24, NASA held a press conference to address not just the current Artemis II delay but how the entire Artemis program is pivoting to a new launch cadence, which, in theory, should put the entire project back on track.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman has made a lot of promises and has also suggested that the way for NASA to achieve its goals is to emulate a model pioneered in the 1960s. In short, while we’re experiencing a delay right now, NASA is gearing up for even more launches and a quicker turnaround time between missions. Here’s what it means and why, for now, the Artemis 2028 Moon landing mission is still on track.
Artemis Program’s New Schedule
Artemis II’s launch was delayed in late February 2026.
As revealed during the press conference on February 27, 2026, the new Artemis launch schedule looks like this:
- Artemis II: Launch in April 2026, will orbit the Moon to test the systems that will be used for the landing in 2028 by Artemis IV.
- Artemis III: Launching in 2027. This will be a low Earth orbit mission to test the spacesuits. This mission will involve docking with a spacecraft either from SpaceX’s Starship or Blue Origin’s Blue Moon craft. Artemis III was originally the mission that was intended to land on the Moon in 2028. But now, that will be Artemis IV, so Artemis III is now a new mission.
- Artemis IV: Launching in 2028. This will be a new Moon landing mission.
- Artemis V: Also launching in 2028. This is also a Moonshot, but for later in that year.
In short, NASA has moved up the launch date of Artemis III, changed its mission objective, and added an additional Moonshot for late 2028. So, overall, NASA has added two additional Artemis missions to its upcoming schedule.
NASA is changing its cadence for upcoming launches
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, during the Artemis press conference on February 27, 2026.
The key takeaway from the new restructure of the Artemis program is this: NASA plans to use learnings from the extra mission (now Artemis III) to ensure that the Moonshots in 2028 are a success. In short, Issacman thinks that having more back-to-back launches of Artemis rockets actually reduces risks, because NASA is testing more and getting better at fixing problems faster.
As he put on February 27:
“When you regain these core competencies, and you start exercising your muscles, your skills do not atrophy... It’s safer. And yes, you are buying down risk, because you’re able to test things in low Earth orbit before you need to get to the moon, which is exactly what we did during the Apollo era.”
So, while it may seem like there’s a delay in getting back to the Moon, NASA is actually launching more rockets in a short period of time, which is far different than the pace of more recent years. Now, it remains to be seen if this new approach will work.
Will the extra launches cost more? The answer is almost certainly a big yes. Each Artemis launch costs between $2 billion and $4 billion, and the overall cost of the of the progam, since 2012, is currently at $93 billion. Of that number, roughly $53 billion has been spent between 2021 and today. So, additional launches, on the low end, will add at least $4 billion to that number.
When is the next Artemis launch?
The next Artemis launch is still Artemis II, which is expected to happen as early as April 1, 2026. Previous March 5 launch dates are no longer going forward.
