Artemis IV

Humanity's return to the lunar surface.

Future Mission

What

Artemis Overview

Discover

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Beyond

Moon to Mars Architecture

Artemis IV will be one of the most complex undertakings of engineering and human ingenuity in the history of deep space exploration, exploring the lunar South Pole region. The astronauts’ observations, samples, and data collected will expand our understanding of our solar system and home planet, while inspiring the Artemis Generation.

Mission Type

Crewed Surface Landing

LAUNCH

Early 2028

Mission Overview

Artemis IV

Humanity's return to the lunar surface

Artemis IV astronauts will travel to lunar orbit, where two crew members will descend to the surface and spend approximately a week near the South Pole of the Moon conducting new science before returning to lunar orbit to join their crew for the journey back to Earth.

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NASA’s Artemis missions aim to establish a sustained lunar presence on and around the Moon. Communications and navigation technologies will be critical to enabling the safety, science, and operations of our astronauts and missions.

NASA

Spaceport

The systems and facilities that assemble and launch NASA's rockets and spacecraft for NASA’s Artemis missions.

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Artemis I Launch Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson looks out of the windows in Firing Room 1 of the Launch Control Center as NASA's Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft roll by on their way to the launch pad.

Crew Launch

The crew of four astronauts will launch in Orion on the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

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Spacecraft

The crew of Artemis IV will ride to lunar orbit aboard the Orion spacecraft, where Orion will dock with a lander in preparation for their journey to the lunar surface. Orion is the only spacecraft capable of returning crews to Earth at lunar reentry velocities.

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Human Landing System

Two crew members will board a human landing system in lunar orbit and descend to the surface where they will collect samples, perform science experiments, and observe the lunar environment before returning to orbit aboard the the lander.

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Thumbnail for NASA's HLS (Human Landing System) fact sheet showing a SpaceX HLS on the moon with the Earth in the background (left) and a Blue Origin Blue Moon HLS (right) with an astronaut working next to it.

Suits

The crew members will wear Axiom Space's advanced spacesuit as a one-person spacecraft that will protect them from the extreme environment of space while they are performing moonwalks on the Artemis IV mission.

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The Artemis III spacesuit, the AxEMU, reveal at Space Center Houston

Where We're Going

Lunar Site Selection

As NASA prepares to send astronauts back to the Moon under Artemis, the agency has identified nine candidate landing regions near the lunar South Pole.

Each region contains multiple potential landing sites for Artemis, which will be the first of the Artemis missions to bring crew to the lunar surface.

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This image shows nine candidate landing regions for NASA’s Artemis campaign, with each region containing multiple potential sites for the first crewed landing on the Moon in more than 50 years. The background image of the lunar South Pole terrain within the nine regions is a mosaic of LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) WAC (Wide Angle Camera) images.

Credit: NASA

Why We're Going

Science Objectives

Field geology, sample collection and return, and deployed experiments all are part of the necessary mix of work to advance scientific discovery at the Moon.

The Moon often is referred to as the cornerstone of the solar system, and the Artemis III investigations aim to help scientists better understand fundamental planetary processes that operate across the solar system and beyond.

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