NASA plans to land astronauts on the moon again in 2028, on the Artemis IV mission, which would be its first crewed lunar landing since Apollo.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman confirmed the 2028 target at a Kennedy Space Center news conference on Friday, October 23, 2026, six months after Artemis II flew four astronauts around the moon. Before that, Artemis III is still set to launch next summer as a two-week mission that stays in orbit around Earth. Its four-person crew, three NASA astronauts and one Italian astronaut, will practice docking the Orion capsule with the lunar landers being built by SpaceX and Blue Origin. NASA has not yet chosen which of the two companies will provide the Artemis IV lander. The agency is also starting a moon base near the lunar south pole, with the first robotic launch expected by the end of 2026 and more landers, rovers and orbiters to follow. Isaacman described the effort as a new space race against China.
Image: Artemis II launch, NASA photo, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.