Artemis II mission was a triumph - now comes the hard part

• 01Artemis II sent four astronauts around the far side of the Moon and returned them safely to Earth.
• 02NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced plans for one crewed lunar landing per year beginning in 2028, with the fifth Artemis mission that year marking the start of what the agency calls its Moon base.
• 03NASA has contracted SpaceX and Blue Origin to build lunar landers: SpaceX's Starship will stand 35 metres tall, and Blue Origin's Blue Moon Mark 2 is more compact.
• 04NASA's Office of Inspector General reported on 10 March that SpaceX's lunar Starship is at least two years behind its original delivery date with further delays expected, and Blue Origin's Blue Moon is at least eight months late with nearly half of 2024 design review issues still unresolved.
• 05The Artemis programme plans to store propellant in an Earth-orbiting depot topped up by more than 10 separate tanker flights launched over months, requiring transfer of super-cold liquid oxygen and methane between spacecraft in space.
• 06Artemis III, scheduled for mid-2027, is designed to test how the Orion crew capsule docks in Earth orbit with the landers.
• 07China has stated an aim of landing an astronaut on the Moon by around 2030, using a simpler approach with two rockets and separate crew and lander modules that avoids in-orbit refuelling.
• 08Elon Musk has spoken of getting humans to Mars before the end of this decade, though many experts believe it is more likely to be the 2040s at the earliest.

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NASA's Artemis II mission successfully orbited the Moon with four astronauts and returned them to Earth. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced plans for annual crewed lunar landings beginning in 2028, with a permanent Moon base to follow. However, NASA's Office of Inspector General reported significant delays in both SpaceX's and Blue Origin's lunar landers, and independent analysts doubt the 2028 landing target is realistic, particularly given China's stated goal to land an astronaut on the Moon by 2030.