After Artemis II's lunar flyby, NASA turns to the harder Artemis III landing
Record-setting crewed flyby flew in April; the moon landing now hinges on Starship and a grounded V3
Summary
NASA's Artemis II crew, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and the CSA's Jeremy Hansen, splashed down on 10 April 2026 after a 10-day, ~695,081-mile crewed lunar flyby, the farthest humans have ever travelled, having launched 1 April on SLS from Kennedy. The mission validated Orion's life support, manual handling and rendezvous data needed for a landing. Attention now turns to the far harder Artemis III, which requires a crewed lunar landing using a SpaceX Starship lander still in flight test, and Starship is grounded after its V3 booster crash. The US-China moon race sharpens as China targets a crewed landing by 2030. Artemis III's date depends largely on Starship's recovery, not on NASA's own hardware.
By the numbers
- ~695,081 miles, total distance flown, a crewed record (beating Apollo 13).
- 10 days, Artemis II mission duration.
- 4, crew, including the first Canadian to fly to the Moon.
- 2030, China's target for a crewed lunar landing (the pacing rival).
Why it matters
Artemis II proved Orion can carry humans to the Moon and back; Artemis III must put boots on the surface before China does. The bottleneck is now the Starship lander, making a NASA flagship hostage to SpaceX's test campaign.
What to watch
- Starship lander progress and whether the V3 grounding slips Artemis III.
- NASA's official Artemis III target date after the assessments.
- China's crewed-landing milestones (Long March 10, Mengzhou, Lanyue).