The Artemis I unmanned lunar rocket lifts off from launch pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on November 16, 2022. NASA’s Artemis 1 mission is a 25-and-a-half day voyage beyond the far side of the Moon and back. (Photo by GREGG NEWTON/AFP via Getty Images)
OAN Staff Addie Davis 1:51 PM – Friday, February 27, 2026
NASA officials announced during a news conference on Friday that the Artemis program is planning to increase the cadence of its missions.
The purpose is to achieve national objectives of returning astronauts to the moon and establishing a permanent lunar presence, according to the agency.
“This includes standardizing vehicle configuration, adding an additional mission in 2027, and undertaking at least one surface landing every year thereafter,” NASA said in a statement.
Through a December 18, 2025 executive order, President Donald Trump mandated the return to the moon by 2028 through the Artemis program, as well as the establishment of the initial elements for permanent lunar outposts by 2030, enabling the next steps in Mars exploration.
NASA also faces increased competition from China in a race to return people to the moon and construct permanent lunar settlements, according to USA Today.
“With credible competition from our greatest geopolitical adversary increasing by the day, we need to move faster, eliminate delays, and achieve our objectives,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a statement.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman (2L), NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya (2R), and Lori Glaze (R), associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, speak during a press conference to provide an update on the Artemis II mission at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on February 27, 2026. (Photo by Miguel J Rodriguez Carrillo / AFP via Getty Images)
Explaining the long intervals between the launches and planned launches of Artemis missions, so far, Isaacman said during the Friday news conference they are not a path to success, adding that NASA is endeavoring to get launches inside of a year, potentially only 10 months apart.
This means the possibility of two missions, Artemis IV and V, anticipating to land astronauts on the moon in 2028. However, Isaacman also noted that the agency is not committing to two launches.
Artemis II, which is planned to send astronauts on a trip around the moon, has faced ongoing delays from its initial February launch date, being moved back to at least April 1st, according to CBS News.
Isaacman explained further that the Artemis III mission, instead of landing on the moon, is scheduled to launch in 2027, rendezvousing in a low Earth orbit with one or both of the commercial lunar landers of Blue Origins and SpaceX — testing out key operations.
“We didn’t go right to Apollo 11, right,” Isaacman continued. “Right now our program is essentially set up with an Apollo 8 and then going right to the moon, and that is, that is again not a pathway to success.”
The NASA announcement comes in the wake of the 2025 annual report released on Wednesday by the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, which deemed the existing plans to be too risky, CBS News reported.
The updates announced for the Artemis missions address many of the concerns listed in the safety report, Isaacman concluded.
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