Nasa plans first crewed Moon mission in 50 years for February 2026

Maybe there is too much going on or it’s the fracturing of news media, but there are big things happening that people aren’t talking about.  

In four months, humans are going back to the Moon.  The Artemis 2 mission is to perform a lunar orbit, no landing, similar to Apollo 9 in 1968.  Apollo 9 is the mission that yielded the moving “Earth Rise” photograph.

NASA’s Artemis program is scheduled to get people back to the Moon in a year and a half.

The planned Artemis missions are:

Artemis 1 (2022):  Uncrewed mission to lunar orbit.

Artemis 2 (2026):  Crewed mission to lunar orbit.

Artemis 3 (2027):  Crewed mission with lunar landing with 6.5 days on the surface.

Artemis 4 (2028):  Crewed mission with lunar landing.  Add components to a small space station near the Moon called Lunar Gateway.

Artemis 5 (2030):  Crewed mission with lunar landing to drop off Lunar Terrain Vehicle using Blue Origin Blue-Moon drop ship.  Astronauts stay at the Lunar Gateway space station.

Artemis 6 (2031):  Crewed mission to add an airlock to the Lunar Gateway and do a lunar landing.

Artemis 7 (2032):  Crewed mission to drop off the Habitable Mobility Platform.  The Lunar Cruiser is a Moon camper good for month-long surface missions.

Artemis 8 (2033):  Lunar landing with the delivery the Foundational Surface Habitat.

Artemis 9 (2034): Lunar landing with the delivery of additional Moon base equipment.

Artemis 10 (2035):  Lunar landing with a long-term stay of several months.

Artemis 11 (2036):  Lunar landing with a long-term stay of several months.

That is a busy decade, with exciting space work.  The missions for the next five years are locked in, but small additions can be made.  Artemis 3 will have crew on the Moon for almost a week, so robotic probes can be sent out to scout the area.

Once the Lunar Rover is delivered, real work can be done.  A permanent site should be near ice, and a lava tube would be really convenient.  Having the Lunar Rover let’s them get pretty far from the landing site.

It’s exciting.