Tech Explained: NASA overhauls moon mission in effort to cut risks and costs in Simple Terms

NASA is shaking up its Artemis mission to the moon, canceling a multibillion-dollar Boeing Co. upgrade to the centerpiece SLS rocket and slotting in a test flight closer to Earth as the program remains beset by delays and cost overruns.

The changes announced on Friday mean that NASA is essentially swapping the actual moon landing for an additional test mission staged closer to Earth — while insisting the 2028 deadline for a lunar touchdown remains unchanged.

Artemis III, which was supposed to be the moon landing and is now pulled forward to 2027, will see Boeing’s Space Launch System rocket launch a crew aboard Lockheed Martin Corp.’s Orion capsule. The craft will then dock with one or two of the commercially supplied landers in Earth orbit, NASA said. Artemis IV will land a crew on the moon a year later.

NASA said the goal of the changed sequence is to fly more frequently in order to counteract one of the biggest criticisms of Artemis: the slow development pace of its SLS rocket. The space agency has been preparing to launch the rocket in coming weeks, with a crew of four set to fly around the moon, though that mission is now delayed by weeks and potentially months because of technical issues.

But after years of Boeing’s SLS rocket missing deadlines, it’s unclear if the company will actually be able to meet this accelerated pace and if NASA can actually pull up Artemis III in the way it envisions.

The overall mission has largely been set in stone since President Donald Trump’s first term. However, Artemis has come under fire for delays, mismanagement and cost overruns, with NASA’s watchdog estimating that the program to put humans back on the moon for the first time in more than half a century has cost roughly $93 billion so far.

The numerous setbacks and a complicated architecture that marries technology supplied by multiple companies has fueled doubts that NASA will meet its 2028 target in a moon race against a resurgent China.

“With credible competition from our greatest geopolitical adversary increasing by the day, we need to move faster, eliminate delays, and achieve our objectives,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a statement.

Boeing’s SLS rocket has a low launch rate, with years passing between flights. That can create more risk, according to NASA, as engineers and flight operators are unable to keep their launch skills sharp.

NASA plans to find an alternative to Boeing’s Exploration Upper Stage, or EUS, a much more powerful upper portion of the SLS slated to debut on the rockets’ fourth launch.

While Boeing will still build the core portion of the SLS rocket, a potential loss of the upper-stage work would mark the latest setback for the storied aerospace company. Boeing’s EUS has come under significant criticism for being behind schedule and its ballooning cost, which NASA’s Inspector General says will hit nearly $2.8 billion through 2028.

“As NASA lays out an accelerated launch schedule, our workforce and supply chain are prepared to meet the increased production needs,” Steve Parker, the top Boeing space division executive, said in a statement.

The agency has tasked Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin to build landers to ferry humans to and from the moon. With the addition of another mission, the now repurposed Artemis III flight will test rival lunar landers built by SpaceX and Blue Origin in Earth orbit, a strategy aimed at reducing risks.

Under the previous sequence, the landers would have had very little time to do in-space tests before carrying people for the first time. NASA recently called on SpaceX and Blue Origin to speed up development of their lander, with the clock now ticking to produce vehicles that will be capable of docking with Artemis III by next year.