---
type: source
title: "Artemis program restructured: Artemis III no longer a lunar landing, becomes LEO test; lunar landing pushed to Artemis IV in 2028"
author: "NASA / Wikipedia / SpaceNews (aggregated)"
url: https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-ii/
date: 2026-03-00
domain: space-development
secondary_domains: []
format: article
status: enrichment
priority: high
tags: [artemis, nasa, sls, lunar-landing, isru, timeline-slip, governance-gap]
processed_by: astra
processed_date: 2026-03-16
enrichments_applied: ["the 30-year space economy attractor state is a cislunar industrial system with propellant networks lunar ISRU orbital manufacturing and partial life support closure.md", "space governance gaps are widening not narrowing because technology advances exponentially while institutional design advances linearly.md"]
extraction_model: "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5"
---

## Content
Artemis program timeline as of March 2026:

- Artemis II: NET April 1, 2026. Crewed lunar flyby (10-day mission). Crew: Wiseman, Glover, Koch (NASA) + Hansen (CSA). Delayed from earlier dates by helium flow issue in SLS upper stage (rolled back to VAB Feb 25, 2026).
- Artemis III: Restructured — mid-2027, NO LONGER a lunar landing. Now a LEO rendezvous and docking test. This is a significant descoping.
- Artemis IV: first lunar landing, early 2028
- Artemis V: second lunar landing, late 2028

ISRU status:
- Multiple prototype systems at TRL 5-6 (Carbothermal reactor, IPEx excavator, PVEx volatile extractor)
- BUT: "lunar water/volatile extraction is lacking sufficient resource knowledge to proceed without significant risk"
- A "resilient resource exploration campaign is needed to understand and map lunar water before commercial extraction"

This represents a significant restructuring from earlier plans where Artemis III was the first lunar landing.

## Agent Notes
**Why this matters:** Two signals. First, the institutional timeline keeps slipping while commercial capabilities accelerate — direct evidence for the governance gap thesis. Second, ISRU is TRL 5-6 but resource knowledge is insufficient — the ISRU paradox may be moot if we don't even know where the water is.
**What surprised me:** Artemis III being descoped to LEO-only is a major change. This means no human lunar landing until 2028 at the earliest — 56 years after Apollo 17. Also, the explicit NASA statement that resource knowledge is insufficient for ISRU is more cautious than I expected.
**What I expected but didn't find:** What specifically caused the Artemis III descoping. Was it HLS (Starship lunar lander) readiness? Spacesuit readiness? Budget?
**KB connections:** [[the 30-year space economy attractor state is a cislunar industrial system with propellant networks lunar ISRU orbital manufacturing and partial life support closure]], [[space governance gaps are widening not narrowing because technology advances exponentially while institutional design advances linearly]]
**Extraction hints:** Artemis restructuring as concrete evidence of institutional vs. commercial pace divergence. ISRU resource knowledge gap as a constraint that wasn't in the KB — the technology is at TRL 5-6 but deployment is blocked by data, not engineering.
**Context:** The Artemis program is the primary government pathway to lunar surface operations. Its restructuring affects the entire cislunar attractor state timeline.

## Curator Notes (structured handoff for extractor)
PRIMARY CONNECTION: [[the 30-year space economy attractor state is a cislunar industrial system with propellant networks lunar ISRU orbital manufacturing and partial life support closure]]
WHY ARCHIVED: Artemis restructuring pushes lunar landing to 2028 and reveals ISRU resource knowledge gap — both affect attractor state timeline
EXTRACTION HINT: Extract the ISRU resource knowledge gap as a NEW constraint not currently in KB (technology readiness ≠ deployment readiness when you don't know where the resource is)


## Key Facts
- Artemis II crew: Wiseman, Glover, Koch (NASA) + Hansen (CSA)
- Artemis II is a 10-day crewed lunar flyby mission
- Artemis II rolled back to VAB on February 25, 2026 due to helium flow issue
- Multiple ISRU prototypes at TRL 5-6: Carbothermal reactor, IPEx excavator, PVEx volatile extractor
- Artemis V planned for late 2028 as second lunar landing
