Isaacman makes his mark by revamping the Artemis return to the moon

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman recently announced a revamping of the Artemis program that will take Americans back to the moon. The new plan includes a new mission to take place between the upcoming Artemis II voyage around the moon and the eventual first crewed moon landing in over 55 years.

The strategy involves flying an Earth orbit mission in 2027, in which the Orion spacecraft would rendezvous and dock with one or both of the planned Human Landing Systems, the SpaceX Starship and the Blue Origin Blue Moon. The new mission would be designated Artemis III.

The first lunar landing attempt, now Artemis IV, would take place in early 2028. A possible second lunar landing is envisioned for later that year and would be designated as Artemis V.

Isaacman proposes to adhere to this new, ambitious launch schedule by launching the Space Launch System once every 10 months instead of once every two to three years. He means to accomplish this by “standardizing” the Space Launch System in several ways. 

First, he aims to cancel the Exploration Upper Stage, the Mobile Launcher 2 and the 1B configuration, saving billions of dollars. He also plans to fly the Artemis II circumlunar mission and the Artemis III Earth orbit mission with the current upper stage, and to fly the Artemis IV and Artemis V lunar landing missions with a “standardized” new upper stage, possibly a Centaur V.

Left unstated was what would happen to the lunar orbital Gateway Space Station, where crews would transfer from the Orion space capsule to a Human Landing........

© The Hill