Artemis III aims to choreograph three spacecraft and four astronauts in a two-week Earth orbit

NASA’s Artemis III will be its most complex flight yet: four astronauts aboard Orion on an SLS rocket will rendezvous with two private lunar landers—SpaceX’s Starship and Blue Origin’s Blue Moon—in low Earth orbit over about two weeks. The mission requires cross-pad launches from Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral, multiple in‑orbit docking checks, and an EVA-style test aboard Blue Moon’s lander before Orion returns to Earth with a Pacific splashdown. The objectives test critical interoperability and systems ahead of Artemis IV’s crewed lunar landing, while stressing coordination among NASA, SpaceX, and Blue Origin and paving the way for expanded lunar operations in 2028.