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February 27, 2026<\/p>\n
2 min read<\/p>\n
Add Us On Google<\/span>Add SciAm<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n NASA scraps 2027 Artemis III moon landing in favor of 2028 mission<\/p>\n The announcement that NASA will rejigger Artemis III not to land on the moon in 2027 came after the agency\u2019s Artemis II mission encountered problems, delaying its launch<\/p>\n By Claire Cameron edited by Lee Billings<\/span><\/p>\n NASA will not land astronauts on the moon in 2027, the space agency\u2019s administrator Jared Isaacman announced on Friday. Instead the agency will rejigger its planned Artemis III mission to test in-orbit capabilities such as using the astronauts\u2019 space suits in microgravity and rendezvousing with at least one of the spacecraft that NASA hopes to use as a lunar lander.<\/p>\n NASA will then attempt to two crewed lunar landings in 2028 as part of Artemis IV and Artemis V. The decision represents a major schedule shift for the agency, which has been pushing for years to make Artemis III the mission that will land astronauts on the moon for the first time in more than half a century.<\/p>\n The announcement comes after NASA\u2019s upcoming Artemis II mission encountered more problems with its rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), last week. As a result, NASA has had to scrap a target March launch, which already represented a delay from its initial time line. The SLS, which now has helium flow issues, had already encountered hydrogen leaks and other problems that had caused its launch window to slip earlier this year\u2014and similar issues had caused months of delays for the rocket\u2019s first launch in the uncrewed Artemis I mission. The next launch window for Artemis II opens in early April.<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n At a press conference on Friday, Isaacman said NASA was confident that increasing the cadence of SLS launches to once every 10 months or so would result in less risk and more mission success.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m excited because I think we have a path here to actually get the job done within the time frames that we\u2019ve targeted right now,\u201d Isaacman said. NASA needs to rebuild its \u201ccore competencies,\u201d he said, adding that the agency will work to standardize the SLS production so that the time between launches can be reduced as much as possible. Currently, the period between the last SLS launch for Artemis I and the upcoming missions will be more than three years.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is simply a right and wrong way to go about doing this,\u201d Isaacman said. \u201cLaunching every three years and … massive changes in the configuration of vehicle is not a recipe for success.\u201d<\/p>\n Editor\u2019s Note (2\/27\/26): This is a developing story and may be updated.<\/p>\n If you enjoyed this article, I\u2019d like to ask for your support. Scientific American<\/span> has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been a Scientific American<\/span> subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm <\/span>always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.<\/p>\n If you subscribe to Scientific American<\/span>, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.<\/p>\n In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can’t-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world’s best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.<\/p>\n There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you\u2019ll support us in that mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" February 27, 2026 2 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm NASA scraps 2027 Artemis III moon landing in favor of 2028 mission The announcement that NASA will rejigger Artemis III not to land on the moon in 2027 came after the agency\u2019s Artemis II mission encountered problems, delaying its launch By Claire Cameron edited<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45508,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[7387,3386,3614,2841,2509,1615,3331,1681],"class_list":{"0":"post-45507","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-artemis","9":"tag-favor","10":"tag-iii","11":"tag-landing","12":"tag-mission","13":"tag-moon","14":"tag-nasa","15":"tag-scraps"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/45508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}On supporting science journalism<\/h2>\n
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