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Artemis III Tracker — NASA Moon Mission 2027
Four astronauts · ~2-week shakedown in low Earth orbit · targeting 2027 · first crewed test of the commercial Human Landing Systems. All confirmed official NASA information as of June 16, 2026.
🌙 Looking for the previous flight? See the full Artemis II mission archive — crew safely home after the first crewed lunar flyby since 1972. →
Backup: NASA astronaut Bob Hines trains alongside the prime crew and can substitute into the mission if needed.
In a major revision announced on June 9, 2026, NASA confirmed that Artemis III is no longer the first lunar-landing flight. Instead, it will fly four astronauts on a roughly two-week mission in low Earth orbit — the same region where the International Space Station operates — to carry out the in-space tests still needed before a crew can land on the Moon.
After launching on the Space Launch System (SLS) and checking out Orion's crewed systems, the spacecraft will, for the first time, demonstrate rendezvous and docking with test versions of one or both American commercial Human Landing Systems (HLS) under development by Blue Origin and SpaceX.
Per NASA's preliminary plan, Orion would dock with the Blue Origin lander, undock, and then dock with SpaceX's Starship for about a day. The crew would not enter the landers during this flight — the test vehicles will not be outfitted with a life-support system — so the focus is on validating the docking interfaces and joint operations.
These demonstrations are essential groundwork for Artemis IV, now planned as the first crewed mission to the lunar South Pole in 2028.