NASA, Lockheed Martin say Artemis III advancing, facing milestones this year
By Cat Hofacker
By Cat Hofacker
AIAA ASCEND, Washington, D.C. — NASA and its contractors, moving forward with manufacturing components for the Artemis III mission, now expect several key milestones to occur this calendar year.
“We’re looking at stacking in the next two months,” Administrator Jared Isaacman told the audience here during a Tuesday morning keynote, referring to the SLS rocket for Artemis III.
The agency last week released new details about this 2027 mission, in which an Orion capsule is to practice rendezvous and docking with pathfinder versions of one or both lunar landers in development: a SpaceX Starship and Blue Origin Blue Moon Mark 2. Among the updates was that Orion will be launched to low-Earth orbit carrying a crew of four astronauts.
Components for their SLS are already at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, including the largest component of the rocket’s core stage and segments for the two solid rocket boosters. “
We’re aiming to get a kind of preliminary partial wet dress [rehearsal] done before the end of the year,” Isaacman said today.
He did not elaborate on what that rehearsal would include. Before Artemis I in 2022, the agency conducted a series of “green run” tests with the core stage of that rocket, including loading a limited amount of liquid hydrogen fuel to practice loading procedures. Before both Artemis I and Artemis II, the agency also conducted full wet dress rehearsals to practice fueling and other launch day operations.
In parallel, Lockheed Martin is on track to deliver the Artemis III Orion to NASA “at the end of the calendar year,” Kirk Shireman, the company’s Orion program manager, told attendees during a session following Isaacman’s remarks.
That amounts to a “15% [schedule] reduction,” he said, and the capsules for the planned Artemis IV and V lunar landings are already being built. Those missions are slated for 2028.
Lockheed Martin is also taking steps to increase Orion production long-term, he said, including adding another clean room and test cell to the Operations & Checkout Building at NASA Kennedy, where Orions are manufactured.
“The fact is, it’s a cultural shift, frankly, for us and I think for a lot of people,” Shireman said of the accelerated schedule. “It’s this notion that every hour matters — every hour, every day matters.”
