Here's When Artemis III Will Take Flight

People around the world were captivated in April 2026 as NASA launched its first manned mission to the moon in decades. And while the ship never actually touched down, Artemis II did do something even more historic, flying around the dark side of the moon, taking the four astronauts to the furthest point humans have ever traveled to before.

Not only that, but the mission also saw the crew testing some deep-space technology in preparation for future missions that include moon landings.

Now that Artemis II is back on the planet, people want to know when Artemis III will launch and what NASA has planned for its next mission.

Unfortunately, space fans and novice stargazers may have to wait a bit longer to tune in and watch the ship take off, since NASA appears to be experiencing some delays in redesigning the ship and getting it ready for its own space adventure. You can find out what they are and when the ship is likely to officially launch, below.

NASA has announced plans to launch Artemis III, which will fly using the Orion spacecraft, which sits on top of the Space Launch System (SLS), towards the end of 2027. According to the space agency's website, there will be additional information shared about the launch as it gets closer and NASA is able to finalize its plans.

This sounds like it's a bit later than NASA had originally planned to send the new ship into space, since the agency previously said it would launch every 10 months.

According to Space.com, the holdup isn't at NASA, but instead the issue is with SpaceX and Blue Origin, both of which are sending Human Landing System vehicles, which will eventually be tasked with getting the future astronauts to the lunar surface.

It sounds like there are delays with both companies that are causing the lunar lander production to hold up the launch, which means that NASA will fall off its planned 10-month rotation, where it planned to launch more frequent missions.

According to NASA, the mission is to test the "integrated operations" between the spacecraft and the landers from SpaceX and Blue Origin. The short-term plan for this mission is to make sure that the systems can all work together as well as verifying that the landers are suitable for docking.

However, the long-term goal is to keep sending astronauts to the moon with increasingly more challenging tasks until NASA can establish a permanent settlement on Earth's satellite.

The settlement will eventually be used to launch astronauts further into space so that the agency can eventually send a manned mission to Mars.

Of course, that mission is likely still decades from becoming a reality, due to the amount of technology that will need to be developed to reach another planet. Additionally, NASA will need to figure out a way to store enough food, oxygen, and fuel to make the trek, which would take more than two years to accomplish.