NASA plans to land astronauts on the Moon in 2028, more than half a century after the last Apollo crew left the surface in 1972. The path there involves several missions launching in quick succession, starting with a crewed flyby in April 2026. China is independently targeting 2030 for its own crewed lunar landing, meaning two nations could have boots on the Moon within a few years of each other.
The Artemis Timeline, Mission by Mission
NASA’s return to the Moon follows a staggered approach, with each Artemis mission building on the one before it. Artemis II, scheduled for April 2026, will send four astronauts on a roughly 10-day trip around the Moon and back without landing. It will be the first time humans have traveled beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972.
Artemis III, now planned for 2027, will not land on the Moon as originally envisioned. Instead, NASA restructured it as an orbital test mission to check out systems and operational capabilities in low Earth orbit. That clears the way for Artemis IV in 2028, which is now the mission designated for the first crewed lunar surface landing. NASA has said it intends to conduct at least one surface landing every year after that, ramping up to a sustained presence rather than a flags-and-footprints repeat of Apollo.
This timeline has already shifted multiple times. Artemis III was once targeting 2025 for a landing, then 2026, and now it’s been repurposed entirely. Budget realities, technical hurdles, and hardware readiness have all played a role. The current schedule is NASA’s most recent restructuring, announced alongside plans to add missions and standardize vehicle configurations across the program.
What Still Needs to Happen First
The biggest technical challenge standing between now and a lunar landing is the human landing system, which SpaceX is building using a modified version of its Starship rocket. Starship has to prove it can do something no spacecraft has done before: refuel in orbit by transferring super-cooled propellant between vehicles. Without orbital refueling, Starship can’t carry enough fuel to reach the lunar surface and return.
Recent flight tests have made progress. SpaceX successfully demonstrated transferring thousands of pounds of cryogenic propellant between internal tanks during a coast phase in orbit. Engineers are now analyzing how the super-cooled fuel behaves when engines shut down, how its movement affects the vehicle’s stability, and whether it can be settled efficiently enough to restart engines in space. These are foundational questions that have to be answered with real flight data, not simulations.
The new moonwalking spacesuits are also on a tight schedule. Built by Axiom Space, the suits have completed over 850 hours of pressurized testing with people inside them. Teams have run underwater simulations at NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory and tested mobility in simulated lunar gravity. Axiom Space recently passed a contractor-led technical review and has started receiving parts for the first flight unit, which will be assembled later this spring. NASA still needs to run its own critical design review to confirm the suits are ready for final testing and delivery.
Where Astronauts Will Land
The target is the Moon’s south polar region, an area never visited by humans. Scientists are interested in this region because it likely holds water ice just below the surface. India’s Chandrayaan-3 lander measured temperatures at a polar site that dropped to 105 Kelvin (about minus 168°C) at night on slopes facing toward the pole. At those temperatures, water ice can migrate into the subsurface and remain trapped for billions of years.
If water ice is accessible in meaningful quantities, it changes the economics of lunar exploration dramatically. Water can be split into hydrogen and oxygen for rocket fuel, used for drinking, or converted into breathable air. That prospect is a major reason NASA chose the south pole over the equatorial sites Apollo visited.
The Lunar Gateway Station
Starting with Artemis IV, crews will have a small space station orbiting the Moon. Called Gateway, its first two modules will launch together on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket ahead of the 2028 landing mission. One module provides power and propulsion, the other serves as a small habitat where astronauts can live and stage equipment before descending to the surface.
Gateway is not strictly required for every landing, but it gives crews a place to transfer between their Orion capsule and a lunar lander, store supplies, and conduct science in lunar orbit. Over time, NASA envisions it as a permanent waypoint for regular trips to and from the surface.
How Much This Costs
NASA’s fiscal year 2025 budget request allocated $7.8 billion to the Artemis campaign, covering missions II through XII. The largest share, $4.2 billion, goes to transportation systems: building Orion capsules, the Space Launch System rocket, and ground infrastructure. Another $3.2 billion funds lunar-specific development, including $1.8 billion for human landing systems, $817.7 million for Gateway, and $434.2 million for spacesuits and lunar rovers.
These are annual figures, and the total program cost will stretch into tens of billions over the coming decade. Budget pressures are a persistent risk. Any significant cuts from Congress could push timelines further to the right, as has happened repeatedly since Artemis was announced.
China’s Parallel Path to the Moon
China is developing its own crewed lunar landing mission independently of NASA, targeting 2030. In October 2025, a spokesman for China’s crewed space program confirmed the mission was on track. The plan uses a new heavy-lift rocket called the Long March 10 to launch astronauts aboard a next-generation crew capsule called Mengzhou, which will carry a lunar lander called Lanyue.
Before sending people, China plans an uncrewed test mission with the same hardware in 2028 or 2029. If both nations hit their targets, NASA astronauts could be walking on the Moon in 2028 with Chinese astronauts following roughly two years later.
A Second Lander From Blue Origin
SpaceX isn’t the only company building a Moon lander for NASA. Blue Origin was selected to develop a second human landing system for the Artemis V mission, currently targeting 2029. The contract includes one uncrewed demonstration landing before Blue Origin carries astronauts on Artemis V. Having two independent lander providers gives NASA a backup if one system falls behind and creates competition that could drive costs down over time.