2026-09-27 · ebungo field research · thirteen sources · thirty verbatim quotes
A little more than five months ago, four humans came home from the Moon. Artemis II launched April 1, 2026 and splashed down in the Pacific on April 10, a crewed lunar flyby of 9 days, 1 hour, and 32 minutes — the first crewed Artemis flight, and a mission that NASA says carried astronauts farther from Earth and closer to the Moon than any human has been in over half a century.[6]
Since the splashdown, the quiet story is how much the Moon's agenda changed on paper and on the surface. NASA re-ordered the missions ahead — the landing mission became an in-orbit rendezvous test, the first landing moved to 2028, and the agency started buying a lunar base like a supply chain, with more than twenty robotic landings planned before any crew arrive.[7][10] The lander economy consolidated: Voyager Technologies agreed to buy Astrobotic, and ispace's first U.S. mission was cancelled by mutual agreement.[12][14] Firefly kept the far side on the manifest.[3] And in the crater ledger, one season produced two new entries — one made by a rock, one made by a rocket stage.[11][9]
Artemis II was the first crewed flight of the Space Launch System and Orion, sent around the Moon and back on an approximately ten-day mission.[7] The crew was Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialist Christina Koch from NASA, with Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency.[7] NASA's own mission page now lists the flight as occurred — launched April 1, 2026, splashdown April 10, 2026 — and frames its purpose as paving the way for future lunar surface missions.[6]
In February 2026, NASA announced a new architecture: add a mission, standardize the rocket, and aim for one lunar mission per year.[7] The mission that was going to land — Artemis III — is now scheduled for 2027 as a demonstration in low Earth orbit that will test one or both commercial landers from SpaceX and Blue Origin.[1] Orion will first dock with Blue Origin's lander pathfinder and spend about two days running tests, then detach and meet SpaceX's Starship pathfinder for about a day of docked checkouts; in total the crew is expected to remain in space for about two weeks.[2]
The first landing is Artemis IV, still targeted early 2028, and it is the first planned crewed mission to the lunar South Pole.[1][2] Artemis V, using the standardized SLS configuration, is expected by late 2028 with subsequent missions roughly once per year — and it is the mission where NASA expects to begin building its Moon base.[7]
On July 15, 2026 NASA named the Artemis III crew: Commander Randy Bresnik, ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano as pilot, and mission specialists Andre Douglas and Frank Rubio, with Bob Hines as backup.[2]
Phase I of the Moon Base architecture plan, running now through 2029, includes more than twenty robotic landings, each designed to incrementally advance system capabilities and validate the components for those that follow.[10] Commercial partners — Blue Origin, Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines, and Voyager Lunar Systems — are working toward delivering landers by 2028.[10]
Griffin-1, built as an infrastructure-class lander, plans to launch in late 2026 and will transport the largest commercial payload ever delivered to the lunar surface, including five NASA payloads mounted on the Astrolab FLIP rover.[10] The company behind it changed hands mid-year: Astrobotic announced in June 2026 an agreement to be acquired by Voyager Technologies, with Griffin Mission One continuing on schedule.[12] Voyager framed the deal around NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman's goal of a permanent U.S. presence on the Moon by 2028.[12]
Intuitive Machines' IM-3 mission, named Trinity, is the first mission to explore the surface of a lunar swirl: it will land at Reiner Gamma — a magnetic anomaly where the Moon's ancient magnetic field is frozen into the rock — delivering five NASA payloads along with six commercial and one civil payload, while an Altus-1 data-relay satellite flies alongside in lunar orbit.[10] On the CLPS ledger, a second-generation Nova-D cargo lander is already booked to deliver six NASA science payloads to the lunar South Pole.[3]
The commercial layer did not move in a straight line. ispace folded its two parallel lander designs — U.S. APEX 1.0 and Japanese Series 3 — into a single ULTRA model, switched engines after its VoidRunner development stalled on performance, and moved its first U.S. mission, the Team Draper flight to the far-side Schrödinger Basin under CLPS task order CP-12, to 2030.[13] On July 15, 2026, Draper and NASA mutually agreed to end task order CP-12, with the ispace-U.S. subcontract expected to terminate with it — and ispace-U.S. said it will propose into CLPS 2.0, the follow-on program NASA announced in April 2026 to increase the task-order award cadence and produce more frequent lunar landings.[14]
The far side is not abandoned. Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost Mission 2 will deliver science and technology to the lunar far side as a CLPS delivery, carrying three NASA payloads there.[4][3]
In September 2026, NASA reported the largest newly formed crater ever found in the solar system. Named McGetchin after pioneering lunar scientist Tom McGetchin, it formed on the Moon's eastern edge sometime between April 11 and May 22, 2024, after a comet or asteroid the size of a three- to six-story building hit the surface — leaving a crater 728 feet wide and 141 feet deep, an impact scientists estimate happens about once in a century or even longer.[11] It was discovered by Robert Wagner, an image-processing specialist from Intuitive Machines, during a routine data-quality check in October 2025 — and follow-up observations found a 4-mile-wide area around the crater that is about 16 degrees Fahrenheit cooler at night than its surroundings.[11]
The second crater was scheduled. The used Falcon 9 upper stage from the January 2025 launch of Firefly's Blue Ghost 1 mission slammed into the Moon on Aug. 5, 2026, near the Einstein and Bell craters — NASA and SpaceX had been tracking it with ground-based telescopes and space-based assets — and NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter imaged the new crater six days later: about 60 feet wide and less than 10 feet deep.[8][9] The LRO team had to tilt the spacecraft and wait for the site to rotate into view, which took six days.[9] NASA's framing is matter-of-fact: although unplanned in this instance, disposing of upper stages on the lunar surface is a technically accepted and safe method and, in some cases, the only practical option for missions in low lunar orbit.[8]
The two craters bracket what the Moon is becoming — one side natural and once-in-a-century, the other industrial and scheduled.[11][8]
[1] Artemis III News and Updates - NASA"Scheduled for 2027, this new demonstration mission in low Earth orbit will test one or both commercial landers from SpaceX and Blue Origin, respectively.""NASA continues to target early 2028 for the first Artemis lunar landing"
[2] NASA Marches Toward Artemis III Mission in 2027, Names Crew Members"The mission will undertake a series of challenging tests in Earth orbit in 2027, essential for Artemis IV, the first planned crewed mission to the lunar South Pole in 2028.""In total, the crew is expected to remain in space for about two weeks, with exact mission length to be determined in real-time based on launch, rendezvous, and docked operations."
[3] CLPS Deliveries - NASA Science"Firefly's Blue Ghost 2 lander will deliver three NASA CLPS science payloads to the lunar far side""The Intuitive Machines Nova-D lander will deliver six NASA CLPS science payloads to the lunar south pole"
[4] CLPS Flight: Blue Ghost Mission 2 - NASA"Blue Ghost Mission 2 will deliver science and technology to the lunar far side"
[6] Artemis II - NASA"The Artemis II mission will carry astronauts farther from Earth and closer to the Moon than any human has been in over half a century.""9 Days, 1 Hour, 32 Minutes"
[7] NASA Strengthens Artemis - NASA"adding a new mission in 2027 to test system capabilities closer to home prior to sending astronauts to the surface of the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years and aims to achieve one lunar mission per year thereafter""This mission also is when NASA is expected to begin building its Moon base.""The Artemis II test flight will take Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialist Christina Koch from NASA, and Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen from the CSA (Canadian Space Agency), around the Moon and back to Earth."
[8] NASA Will Attempt to Observe Rocket Part's Lunar Impact"Using ground-based telescopes and space-based assets, NASA and SpaceX are tracking a used Falcon 9 upper stage from a commercial mission expected to impact the Moon on Wednesday, Aug. 5, near the Einstein and Bell craters.""disposing of upper stages on the lunar surface is a technically accepted and safe method and, in some cases, can be the only practical option for missions in low lunar orbit"
[9] NASA's LRO Images Falcon 9 Crater on Moon - NASA Science"The crater formed on Aug. 5, when a SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage impacted the surface following its January 2025 launch of the Firefly Blue Ghost 1 mission.""To photograph a specific spot, the spacecraft must wait until that location turns into view, which took six days in this case."
[10] NASA Provides Updates on Moon Base Cargo Landers - NASA"Phase I of the Moon Base architecture plan, taking place now through 2029, includes more than twenty robotic landings""plans to launch in late 2026 and will transport the largest commercial payload ever delivered to the lunar surface""commercial partners such as Blue Origin, Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines, and Voyager Lunar Systems are working toward delivering landers by 2028""By deploying Altus-1 in lunar orbit with its three payloads and delivering five NASA payloads along with six commercial and one civil payload to the surface on IM-3""The IM-3 mission will be the first to explore the surface of a lunar swirl"
[11] NASA's Moon Orbiter Spots New, Once-in-Century Moon Crater - NASA Science"Officially named McGetchin after pioneering lunar scientist Tom McGetchin, the crater formed on the Moon’s eastern edge sometime between April 11 and May 22, 2024, after a comet or asteroid the size of a three- to six-story building hit the surface.""Scientists estimate that an impact of this magnitude happens on the Moon about once in a century or even longer.""They found a 4-mile-wide area around the crater that is about 16 degrees Fahrenheit cooler at night than its surroundings."
[12] Astrobotic to Join Voyager Technologies, Accelerating America's Moon Base"today announced it has entered into an agreement to be acquired by Voyager Technologies (NYSE: VOYG)""Administrator Jared Isaacman's goal of a permanent U.S. presence on the Moon by 2028"
[13] ispace Announces New ULTRA Lunar Lander - ispace"announced today ULTRA, its newest lunar lander model integrating the APEX 1.0 lander and the Series 3 lander""resulting in a mission shift and schedule update for ispace-U.S.'s first mission, now expected in 2030"
[14] ispace-U.S. Update on Contract with Draper"Draper has mutually agreed with NASA to end the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) task order CP-12.""In April 2026, NASA announced its plan to launch the next Commercial Lunar Payload Services program (CLPS 2.0)"