NASA targets a 2028 crewed Moon landing as Blue Origin and SpaceX speed up lander work

26 October 2026

NASA has said that Blue Origin and SpaceX, its two commercial human landing system providers, are accelerating work towards a crewed lunar landing in 2028. The Artemis III mission has been redefined as a test of rendezvous and docking between test versions of each company's lander and the Orion spacecraft in low Earth orbit. Crews will launch on the Space Launch System rocket in Orion from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. SpaceX's Starship lander uses in-space propellant transfer in low Earth orbit, while Blue Origin's Blue Moon Mark 2 uses three transfer stages instead. On a landing mission two crew members would descend while two remain in Orion, with the initial missions targeting the lunar South Pole and two moonwalks of about two hours each in spacesuits provided by Axiom Space. Neither company has yet been assigned a specific landing mission.