ASG | Artemis-4 Mission

NASA Artemis-4 Humans Lunar Landing

Artemis IV is an upcoming crewed spaceflight mission that will land on the Moon. Artemis IV was originally designated as the second Artemis flight to take astronauts to the lunar surface. NASA announced a major change to the Artemis architecture on February 27, 2026. Artemis III will be an orbital mission, demonstrating orbital operations with the two lunar landing systems built by Blue Origin and SpaceX. The interim cryogenic propulsion stage (ICPS) used for the first two missions will be replaced with a new second stage, The mission is expected to launch in 2028. Artemis-IV now will be the first human landing mission.

Artemis-4 will be NASA's next mission to the land humans on the lunar surface. It will follow the same steps as the Artemis-2 with a big difference. This time, two astronauts are going to land on the moon and take moon walks. When Artemis-4 lands on the Moon, it will bring the first woman to the lunar surface. The NASA image of Artemis is shown here.

Artemis-4 calls for a surface stay of up to six and a half days. After Orion arrives at the Moon’s south polar region astronauts will be able to explore the surface of the Moon. Artemis 4 will be the first mission to begin the construction of the Artemis Base Camp, now known as, "Moon Base". This would be humanity’s first permanent field station on the lunar surface.

The goal is for the crew to take at least four moon walks with a possible fifth excursion if resources allow. For Artemis-4, astronauts will only explore the surface as far as their spacesuits will allow. For future crewed missions, NASA plans to deliver the Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) to the surface in advance of the astronauts. This would allow an extravehicular activity (EVA) to cover greater distances and allow more capability for collecting samples from the Moon.

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Artemis-3 Concept of Operations — Artemis-3 (now 4) Concept of Operations from NASA

According to this scenario, applied to Artemis-4, Starship HLS will launch and be refueled by a number of Starship tanker launches. The SLS rocket will carry four astronauts to lunar orbit and rendezvous with Starship HLS. The astronauts will enter the lander and proceed to the Moon. Starship HLS will take the Orion crew to the surface and bring them back to rejoin Orion and return to Earth.

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This image shows NASA's plan for Artemis III, provided by NASA, a high resolution image can be found at their website.
This graphic has not yet been updated by NASA.