Artemis 3 tests a three-rocket, two-lander lunar rendezvous campaign

NASA’s Artemis 3 is planned as a complex, multi-launch test in 2027 that will send four astronauts aboard Orion to rendezvous with two private lunar landers—Blue Origin’s Blue Moon and SpaceX’s Starship HLS—after launches of the SLS and accompanying rockets. The mission will validate docking, life-support interfaces, and lunar lander integration in low Earth orbit across a sequence of launches involving the Space Launch System, Starship, and New Glenn, with a roughly two-week timeline that sets the stage for Artemis 4’s follow-on lunar landing in 2028. Crew for Artemis 3 will include Randy Bresnik (NASA) as commander and Luca Parmitano (ESA) as pilot, along with Frank Rubio and Andre Douglas as mission specialists. This marks one of NASA’s most ambitious flight campaigns, designed to prove the coordination of multiple heavy-lift systems before attempting a lunar surface return.