NASA Overhauls Artemis Architecture — III Moves to LEO Rendezvous, IV Gets the Landing

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced a fundamental restructuring of the Artemis program, turning Artemis III into a 2027 Earth-orbit rendezvous test with commercial lunar landers instead of the previously planned Moon landing. The first crewed lunar landing now falls to Artemis IV in early 2028, with Artemis V potentially adding a second landing that same year. NASA cited the need to accelerate SLS launch cadence and reduce per-mission risk.