Launch Catch-Up — Mission Plan Detailed October 23, 2026
NASA’s Artemis III mission is planned as a crewed Earth-orbit test of systems needed for future Moon landings, the agency explained in an October 23 mission update.
The planned 14-day flight in 2027 would carry Randy Bresnik, Frank Rubio, Andre Douglas and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano aboard Orion. Test versions of commercial landers from Blue Origin and SpaceX would launch separately.
NASA plans rendezvous and docking with Blue Origin’s Blue Moon test vehicle, including approximately two days of crew evaluations aboard it. A later docking demonstration with a Starship test vehicle would last up to two hours; astronauts would not enter Starship during that test.
The mission is intended to evaluate software, communications, spacecraft control, life-support functions and operational procedures before planned lunar-surface missions beginning in 2028.
The October 23 account describes planned demonstrations, not tests already completed in orbit. Artemis III would remain near Earth under this plan; it is not the flight designated to land these astronauts on the Moon. The dates and sequence remain mission-planning targets.
Sources: NASA — October 23 mission update: https://www.nasa.gov/missions/artemis/nasas-artemis-iii-mission-to-test-future-moon-lander-operations/