The Artemis II mission, humanity’s first crewed mission to the vicinity of the Moon since 1972, will wait longer to get off the ground. Originally planned for September 2025, Artemis II will now fly no earlier than April 2026 but will fly with the original Orion command module and heat shield.
A heat shield replacement would likely have caused a year’s slip to Artemis II and an 18-month slip to Artemis III from their revised dates. The Artemis III mission to perform the first human landing on the Moon in over half a century has also been pushed to mid-2027 due to the program’s forward path decisions.
Besides resolving the heat shield issue, Artemis III is also dependent on a successful uncrewed demonstration by the SpaceX Starship-based lunar lander as well as a successful inflight fueling demonstration.