NASA’s Artemis Program

​NASA began making plans to return people to the Moon starting in the mid-2000s, including work on new rocket designs and spacecraft to get us there. In 2017, the Artemis program was established, building on the former Constellation program efforts of the prior decade. 

Why Are We Going Back To The Moon?The goals of Artemis are to return humans to the surface of the Moon and to lay the groundwork for future long-term human presence there. Artemis is working towards landing people near craters at the Moon’s largely unexplored south pole.

​The program is also working to establish a long-term presence in lunar orbit aboard a new space station called Gateway. The first mission in the program, Artemis I, was an uncrewed test mission that successfully flew SLS and Orion in November–December 2022. 

Artemis is a complex program featuring: 

• A heavy-lift rocket called Space Launch System (SLS)
• A crew-carrying spacecraft named Orion
• Partnerships with Canada, the European Space Agency, Japan, and other countries to provide hardware, expertise, and astronauts
• Dozens of contracted private companies such as Blue Origin, Intuitive Machines, Firefly Aerospace, SpaceX, and many others. Private companies will first bring science instruments to the Moon and, later, their hardware will bring astronauts to the lunar surface from lunar orbit.