NASA's Isaacman says Artemis III is running about 90 days behind schedule
NASA · SpaceX · Blue Origin
Isaacman told NASA staff Artemis III is roughly 90 days behind schedule, with recovery still possible before a summer 2027 launch.
updates
- 2026-10-06An ESA talk at IAC 2026 cited a later, "late 2027" Artemis III date than NASA's own public mid-2027 target.
what happened
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman told agency staff in a September 20 memo, obtained and published by NASA Watch, that Artemis III is "~90 days broken against the Artemis III schedule," adding there are "still a lot of decisions to be made, problems to solve, and opportunities for the schedule to recover," per Fox 35 Orlando and NASA Watch. The memo named a best-case summer 2027 launch target with up to two lunar landing attempts, Artemis III and IV, in 2028, and said both SpaceX's and Blue Origin's human landing system test articles are being readied to support a mid-2027 Artemis III date. An ESA presentation at IAC 2026 on October 5 cited a "late 2027" Artemis III date, a few months later than NASA's own public mid-2027 target, per Jeff Foust.
why it matters
SpaceX's Starship HLS and Blue Origin's Blue Moon are the two landers Artemis III's schedule depends on, so a numbered, officially acknowledged slip gives their suppliers and NASA's other contractors a concrete gap to plan around instead of informal schedule chatter. It also narrows NASA's margin for a second 2028 landing attempt if Artemis III continues to slip.
signal-to-noise
quick facts
- Companies
- NASA, SpaceX, Blue Origin
- Category
- human spaceflight
- Impact
- notable
- SNR
- 4 / 5
- Event date
- 2026-09-20
- Published
- 2026-10-05 18:25 UTC