MANY MINDEDNASA plans to dock with both Moon landers in orbit before anyone lands
NASA has laid out an orbital rehearsal for its Artemis III demonstration mission, targeted for 2027. Rather than a landing, the flight will have Orion astronauts rendezvous and dock separately with prototype lunar landers from both SpaceX and Blue Origin. Crewed landings on the Moon are targeted to begin the following year, in 2028.
The mechanics are specific. Orion will launch to low Earth orbit atop NASA's SLS rocket from Launch Complex 39B in Florida, then complete two separate docking sequences — one with each company's test article — before returning to splash down. SpaceX plans to fly Starship Version 3, a 171-foot vehicle with a docking system on its nose; astronauts will not enter it. Blue Origin's crew-cabin test, based on its Mark 2 architecture, is expected to launch first, can stay in orbit up to 30 days, and will let up to two astronauts enter alongside an instrumented spacesuit mass simulator.
For mobility, this is about de-risking the hardest step of returning humans to the Moon: proving that competing, commercially launched landers can actually meet and mate with a crewed vehicle in space. Running two providers in parallel also builds redundancy into the program rather than betting on a single design.
The honest caveats: this is a plan for 2027, and NASA says details are subject to change as hardware matures. The account comes from a NASA-issued summary, and the program has moving parts on both contractors' sides that could shift the schedule.
Source: ScienceDaily