Wow. This is huge, and puts doubt on ever walking on the moon again. The original plan was obviously nuts with its weird orbits and mad refueling profile, but it was a plan at least! II was due to send astronauts the furthest into space EVER about now also. What is III to accomplish? When could IV fly, and will lunar descent then occur?
this post was submitted on 28 Feb 2026
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puts doubt on ever walking on the moon again
Well, for the American space program at least. Not for as long as the US continues to drastically underfund NASA since isn't as useful in weapons manufacturing nowadays.
China is still underway to land astronauts on the moon by 2030 from what I can see, and I'd bet they aren't anywhere near as underfunded as NASA has been
What is III to accomplish?
It will be a practice run in LEO, a la Apollo 9.
When could IV fly, and will lunar descent then occur?
It's currently NET 2028, which is the same year as the old Artemis 3. In terms of schedule, it's like they're inserting an "Artemis 2.5" mission, between Artemis 2 and the crewed lunar landing.