These are busy times for NASA’s “Moon to Mars” Artemis Program

March 27, 2026

Hey , Space Placers!

Mission Countdown Clock And Artemis II Stack During 1st Rollout

Greg Redfern

These are busy times for NASA’s “Moon to Mars” Artemis Program https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/artemis/ .

Exactly a month ago Jarred Issacman, the newly appointed NASA Administrator, announced major changes to the program https://wtop.com/the-space-place/2026/02/nasa-says-artemis-program-needs-to-build-muscle-memory/ , to include revamping future Artemis missions, standardizing the Space Launch System (SLS) https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/space-launch-system/ and expanding NASA’s civilian workforce.

On Tuesday, at an event named “Ignition”, https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-unveils-initiatives-to-achieve-americas-national-space-policy/ NASA’s senior leaders announced their plan to achieve the Administration’s National Space Policy and advance American leadership in space. You can watch the entire event.

The Ignition event made it clear that NASA is going back to the moon, to stay this time. In the press release for the event, NASA announced that it was going to build a moon base:

NASA’s plan for establishing a sustained lunar presence will roll out in three deliberate phases:

Phase One: Build, Test, Learn
Phase Two: Establish Early Infrastructure
Phase Three: Enable Long‑Duration Human Presence

In accomplishing these lunar focus objectives, NASA intends to “pause” Gateway https://www.space.com/space-exploration/artemis/nasas-lunar-gateway-space-station-is-out-moon-bases-are-in , a lunar space station. Hardware that has already been built will be repurposed.

I was also very glad to see that NASA is:

Ensuring American presence in low Earth orbit
Advancing world-changing discovery with current, developing science missions
America underway on nuclear power in space

Developing nuclear propulsion is huge as described by NASA:

NASA will launch the Space Reactor‑1 Freedom https://www.space.com/astronomy/mars/nasas-1st-nuclear-powered-interplanetary-spacecraft-will-send-skyfall-helicopters-to-mars-in-2028 , the first nuclear powered interplanetary spacecraft, to Mars before the end of 2028, demonstrating advanced nuclear electric propulsion in deep space. Nuclear electric propulsion provides an extraordinary capability for efficient mass transport in deep space and enables high power missions beyond Jupiter where solar arrays are not effective.

Thankfully the drastic NASA budget cuts proposed by the Administration https://earthsky.org/human-world/proposed-nasa-cuts-decimate-us-space-science-petition/ was overturned https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/2026-nasa-science-saved by Congressional action which is allowing these efforts to go forward.

Leading the way for this return to the moon is NASA’s Artemis II https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-ii/ mission, currently scheduled for launch no earlier than April 1, 6:24 p.m. You can watch the arrival of the four Artemis II astronauts scheduled to arrive at Kennedy Space Center today on NASA Kennedy’s YouTube account. The ceremonial flag raising for the mission will take place today as well by the countdown clock.

NASA has announced ways for the public to participate in the Artemis II mission.

You can send your name to the moon, but you really need to act fast:

https://www3.nasa.gov/send-your-name-with-artemis/

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/nasas-artemis-ii-mission-launch-registration-1074571685839?aff=vgotsite

NASA has released its coverage schedule for Artemis II https://www.nasa.gov/missions/artemis/artemis-2/nasa-sets-coverage-for-artemis-ii-moon-mission/?utm_source=TWITTER&utm_medium=NASA&utm_campaign=NASASocial&linkId=923233262 .