Space Launch System
NASA’s heavy-lift rocket provides the power needed to send Orion and other large payloads beyond Earth orbit.
NASA · Artemis · Moon to Mars
Return to the Moon. Build the road to Mars.
Artemis is NASA’s long-horizon lunar campaign: a sequence of missions designed to return astronauts to the Moon, establish a sustained human presence near the lunar south pole, and turn that operational experience into a launchpad for harder crewed missions deeper into space.
Mission
The mission in one page
Artemis is more than a flags-and-footprints return. It is a systems program that combines launch, crew transport, lunar infrastructure, and human surface operations into a repeatable exploration pipeline.
The program’s central promise is continuity. Apollo proved that humans could reach the Moon; Artemis is built to prove that humans can keep coming back, operate longer, and use the lunar environment as a training ground for much harder missions.
That means pairing heavy-lift launch capability with a deep-space crew capsule, commercial lunar landing systems, upgraded suits and mobility, and the gradual build-out of cislunar infrastructure such as Gateway. In practice, Artemis is part exploration campaign, part engineering testbed, and part strategic bridge to the broader Moon-to-Mars architecture.
I
First flight
Uncrewed Orion mission validating the Space Launch System and deep-space operations around the Moon.
II
Crewed return
Planned lunar flyby proving life support, navigation, and crew systems beyond low Earth orbit.
SP
Surface ambition
Future missions target the south pole, where scientific value and water-ice potential both matter.
M
Long game
Every lunar mission doubles as rehearsal for logistics, habitation, endurance, and Mars-bound operations.
Program arc
Confidence grows by phase
Each major Artemis phase increases confidence, complexity, and permanence — from proving the hardware to rehearsing long-duration deep-space operations.
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Phase 01
Artemis I — uncrewed validation
Launch SLS and Orion together, perform a lunar mission without crew, and validate the integrated stack in deep space.
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Phase 02
Artemis II — crew around the Moon
Send astronauts on a lunar flyby to prove life support, mission planning, navigation, and human operations beyond low Earth orbit.
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Phase 03
Artemis III — lunar surface return
Land astronauts on the Moon again using a commercial human landing system and begin the next era of crewed surface exploration.
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Phase 04
Gateway, logistics, and sustained presence
Expand from individual missions toward an operating cadence that supports extended lunar stays, reusable infrastructure, and deeper international and commercial participation.
Flight stack
No single vehicle is the mission
Artemis succeeds only if multiple systems mature together. The architecture is intentionally distributed: launch, crew transport, landing, and surface operations each carry a distinct burden.
Orion
The deep-space crew capsule is designed for lunar-distance missions with life support, re-entry protection, and mission endurance beyond LEO.
Landing + surface systems
Commercial landers, upgraded suits, and surface tools make actual lunar operations — not just transport — the center of the program.
Closing note
Artemis is the rehearsal for living beyond Earth.
Its value is not only getting back to the Moon — it is learning how to keep going farther with repeatable systems, longer mission durations, and infrastructure that outlasts a single launch.