NASA's Artemis II moon mission is about to end. What's next?
Four astronauts are preparing for a perilous return through Earth's atmosphere to make a splashdown near California and put the finishing touches on a moon-circling mission that will etch their names in history.
NASA's Artemis II mission has for more than a week captivated the public , with people around the world watching in awe as its intrepid crew dared to venture farther from Earth than ever before . Along the way, the crew under the command of NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman saw sights of the moon's far side that no human had ever laid eyes upon.
Three of those astronauts – NASA's Christina Koch and Victor Glover, and Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency – even made a little spaceflight history of their own. Koch became the first woman, Glover the first Black man and Hansen the first Canadian to ever venture within the vicinity of the moon.
Now, the crew of Artemis II are on the cusp of making a victorious homecoming , returning to Earth aboard their Orion spacecraft in a fiery, treacherous final leg that will end with a water landing in the Pacific Ocean. When all is said and done, they will have put about 695,081 miles on Orion's odometer since launching April 1 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, according to NASA .
But the impending end of Artemis II hardly signifies the end of NASA's overall Artemis program .
Here's everything to know about what's next for NASA's first lunar campaign since the Apollo era as the agency works toward a historic moon landing – and eventual human expeditions to Mars .
Artemis II: 10 iconic photos from NASA's human moon mission
Uncrewed lunar landers could head to moon in 2026
NASA and its commercial partners have landed three robotic vehicles on the moon since 2024 – all to varying degrees of success.
For 2026, at least four more uncrewed lunar landing missions are in the works.
None of the missions have a firm target launch date yet, but the first – Pittsburgh-based aerospace company Astrobotic's Griffin-1 mission – appears to be on track for liftoff sometime in July, according to NASA . Three more landers could follow this year, including Blue Origin's Blue Moon Mark-1, Texas-based Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost and Houston-based Intuitive Machines' Nova-C.
In 2027, NASA plans to dramatically increase the number of robotic landers carrying cargo and science instruments with up to 30 more uncrewed landings.
The missions, contracted under NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, would all help pave the way for a human landing.
Artemis II and it’s crew of four lift off from Kennedy Space Center April 1, 2026 on a 10-day mission around the Moon and back. Craig Bailey, FLORIDA TODAY via USA TODAY NETWORK
NASA targets 2027 for Artemis III test mission
As for NASA's next mission under the Artemis program, that is slated to get off the ground sometime in 2027.
In fact, preparations for Artemis III are underway before the Artemis II mission is even back on the ground, with NASA preparing to roll out and transport to Florida a new core stage for the gigantic 322-foot Space Launch System rocket that would help launch the mission.
The Artemis III mission will send a new crew of astronauts on the Orion spacecraft to Earth orbit. There, they will dock with at least one of the commercial lunar landers being developed by Elon Musk 's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin .
NASA will also use the mission to test space suits, known as extravehicular activity suits, being developed by Axiom Space for astronauts on the lunar surface.
SpaceX, the commercial spaceflight company founded by billionaire Musk, was originally awarded the contract to develop a lunar lander for the first Artemis mission to send astronauts to the surface. Under that original plan, SpaceX has been working on a configuration of its Starship vehicle , known as the Human Landing System, for human lunar missions.
But amid concerns that Starship's development has lagged, NASA now also appears to be considering Blue Origin's Blue Moon lander
Moon landing planned for 2028
In 2028, humans could be stepping foot back on the moon for the first time since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
Whichever lander ends up being selected for Artemis IV would rendezvous with NASA astronauts aboard an Orion vehicle in lunar orbit and then ferry them to the surface. After the astronauts conduct a moon walk and a series of scientific experiments , the lander would then transport them back up to Orion, which would make the journey back to Earth, according to NASA .
NASA previously identified nine possible landing sites near the moon's largely unexplored south pole for human surface operations.
All the possible locations are further south than any of the Apollo astronauts landed or ventured, according to NASA . There, a permanent shadow is thought to shroud an area abundant with water ice – a valuable resource that could be extracted and used for drinking , breathing and as a source of hydrogen and oxygen for rocket fuel.
Lunar Selfie
Midway through their lunar observation period, the Artemis II crew members, seen here (From left to right: Victor Glover, Jeremy Hansen, Reid Wiseman, and Christina Koch), pause to turn the camera around for a selfie inside the Orion spacecraft.
NASA's Artemis II astronauts
are among the first government spacefarers to bring personal smartphones to space.
What is NASA's planned moon base?
But this time, those next astronauts who step foot on the moon's surface won't simply plant the stars and stripes before heading back to Earth.
The ultimate goal is for NASA to spend the next few years using a series of both crewed and uncrewed lunar landings to build a $20 billion moon base where astronauts could live and work long term.
After the Artemis V mission, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman has said the agency wants to target a human lunar landing up to twice a year – if not more often.
When could astronauts go to Mars?
Once that cadence is established and the infrastructure for a sustainable settlement is in place, NASA will set its sights on humanity's next giant leap: sending the first astronauts to Mars, possibly in the 2030s.
The moon is not only a pristine time capsule ripe for study – preserved almost unaltered throughout the course of billions of years – but is also considered a stepping stone for human exploration deeper into the cosmos.
NASA leaders recently announced a new Mars mission targeted for by the end of 2028 that would be the first to use a fission nuclear-powered spacecraft. The venture could be a pivotal test of a technology that could also be a power source for surface operations, a vital capability on Mars where dust storms are known to block the sun for weeks at a time.
After reaching Mars in 2030, the three helicopters the spacecraft would deploy would follow in the footsteps of the retired Ingenuity aircraft by surveying for potential human landing sites and using radar to identify sources of underground water.
Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@usatodayco.com
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Artemis II moon mission nears its end. Up next? A moon landing
