NASA details Artemis III low-Earth orbit test mission for Blue Origin and SpaceX lunar landers NASA outlines a complex 2027 test mission in low-Earth orbit to ready Blue Origin and SpaceX lunar landers for a crewed moon landing in 2028. NASA offered new details Friday about a mad dash to get two lunar landers built by competing companies Blue Origin and SpaceX, along with the space agency's own rocket and spacecraft, ready for a crucial test mission next year. NASA Reaffirms Commitment to 2027 Test MissionWe will not delude ourselves into believing that more time, more money, and flying less will somehow make our work safer or more achievable, NASA chief Jared Isaacman said Friday in a press conference reaffirming the agency's commitment to launching a low-Earth orbit test mission next year before a crewed lunar landing in 2028. Blue Origin and SpaceX each have multibillion-dollar contracts with the US space agency to develop vehicles capable of ferrying astronauts from NASA's Orion spacecraft down to the lunar surface.Every vendor and partner should understand that when a schedule is broken, NASA personnel will be knocking on the door, and not to observe, not to write a paper or convene a committee, but to roll up their sleeves and solve problems, Isaacman said. In February, Isaacman, then a newly appointed NASA administrator, shook up the agency's road map for a moon landing by adding a 2027 test mission.Called Artemis III, this mission would see vehicles from both Blue Origin and SpaceX practice docking with Orion in low-Earth orbit, or just a few hundred miles above our planet, far closer to home than the moon that's 238,855 miles (384,400 kilometres) away. Two companies, two test landers. The estimated 14-day test mission will involve the launch of three massive rockets as well as docking and undocking the crewed Orion spacecraft multiple times with experimental vehicles.It's likely the most complicated launch campaign ever undertaken, said Jeremy Parsons, manager of NASA's Artemis Program. Artemis III is designed to help vet which lander NASA might use for Artemis IV, which is slated to mark the first time astronauts have landed on the surface of the moon since the agency's Apollo program concluded in 1972. Blue Origin and SpaceX are developing vastly different vehicles.SpaceX Starship and Blue Origin Blue Moon Design DifferencesSpaceX, which was the first to cinch a lunar landing contract in 2021, intends to use its gargantuan Starship launch vehicle, which is under development but recently completed its first orbital test flight. Starship is a two-part launch system that includes the Super Heavy rocket booster and the upper Starship spacecraft, a 171-foot-tall vehicle packed with six rocket engines of its own. The Starship spacecraft would serve both as the lunar lander and the upper stage of the rocket itself.The vehicle is unlike anything ever flown in the history of spaceflight. Blue Origin's Blue Moon Mark 2, however, harkens much closer to legacy lunar lander designs. Blue Moon is expected to launch within the cargo bay of Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket and, at 52 feet tall, is visually reminiscent of a scaled-up version of NASA's Apollo-era landers. Blue Moon has not yet flown a test flight.The company intended to launch a scaled-down, cargo version, called Blue Moon Mark 1, this year. But those plans were put on hold after a New Glenn rocket exploded in May during routine ground tests and destroyed the company's Florida launch site. Both Blue Origin's and SpaceX's vehicles have a long series of tests and technology demonstrations ahead before Artemis III or Artemis IV. Neither vehicle has ever flown with crew on board or docked with a spacecraft carrying astronauts.NASA Speeds Up Production and Simplifies Spacesuit DesignsIn Friday's meeting, NASA also acknowledged a series of changes it's made to other aspects of the Artemis program, including efforts to speed up production and design changes for the agency's Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft as well as greenlighting a simplified, lighter-weight version of moonwalking spacesuits designed by Houston-based company Axiom. The simplified suits are meant to be quicker to bring to fruition for early moon landing missions, including Artemis IV, but Axiom will continue building the more advanced version for more difficult lunar excursions later in the Artemis program.Almost across the board, NASA is looking to simplify, remove difficult requirements, Parsons said. But it's the lunar lander vehicles, Parsons added, that are currently driving NASA's schedule. Hardware for the Blue Moon vehicle that will fly the Artemis III mission is currently under construction.Meanwhile, SpaceX will fly a relatively bare-bones version of Starship that will essentially be yanked off the company's production line next year as the company continues to tinker with the vehicle's design. Test flights have shown issues with the reliability of Starship's Raptor rocket engines. NASA associate administrator Amit Kshatriya told CNN that in his view, most of what they're seeing now is issues impacting reuse.Basically, the current engine problems might affect SpaceX's ability to reuse the craft and thus see cost savings, but it doesn't mean that Starship isn't on track to support Artemis III, he explained. What we want to make sure is we can get a Starship to orbit with the amount of dwell time that's required to perform this docking test, Kshatriya said, referring to NASA's need to see that Starship can maintain a stable orbit during the mission.Under a newly released timeline for the Artemis Program, within the coming months, SpaceX will need to finish building the Starship prototype that will fly the Artemis III mission and complete several demonstrations to test the vehicle's landing legs and airlock. Meanwhile, it will continue its Starship test flight campaign, including by expanding operations to two new launchpads in Florida and carrying out the first practice run at transferring fuel between two Starship vehicles in orbit.Such a propellant transfer will be necessary to get the hefty Starship to the moon. Transferring super-chilled cryogenic propellants between two vehicles in Earth orbit has never been done before. SpaceX's first demonstration is expected in early 2027. The Artemis III test mission remains a critical stepping stone to Artemis IV, which aims to return astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time in more than five decades.NASA is balancing ambitious schedules, vehicle development challenges and tight budgets as it pushes toward that goal.