NASA’s Artemis III mission is running about three months behind schedule, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman told employees in a September 20th agency-wide memo. NASA Watch, the site run by former NASA employee Keith Cowing, published the note Monday.

Isaacman described the mission as “~90 days broken against the Artemis III schedule.” He said many decisions and problems remain open and the schedule still has chances to recover.

During the Artemis III flight, astronauts will practice docking the Orion spacecraft with lunar landers built by SpaceX and Blue Origin. The crew is Commander Randy Bresnik, Andre Douglas, Frank Rubio, and European pilot Luca Parmitano.

Time Flies

The memo does not specifically list items that are 90 days behind the curve. It does, however, name the areas where Isaacman and his top deputies are stepping in directly.

Rocket hardware

Isaacman said NASA leaders are in the field pressing suppliers and subcontractors to get valves and thrust vector control actuators back on schedule. The Artemis III core stage rolled out of NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in the spring, and Boeing builds the stage while L3Harris makes the RS-25 engines. Final assembly, mounting the engines, running fuel lines, etc., take place here on the Space Coast inside the VAB.

Orion

NASA is accelerating production of the Orbital Maneuvering System Engine for Orion and building some components itself when necessary. The agency is also lining up laser communications for the flight.

Blue Origin

Isaacman wrote that NASA is helping rebuild Blue Origin’s launch pad and assisting its anomaly investigation so that both test landers are ready to support Artemis III in mid-2027. A New Glenn rocket failed spectacularly during a static fire test at Launch Complex 36 on May 28th and crippled the company’s only operational New Glenn pad. The explosion was later traced to one of the rocket’s BE-4 engines. Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp has said the company is building a redesigned pad rather than a copy of the original, with a goal of returning to flight this year.

Not Just Landers

Isaacman pushed back on the idea that recent program changes exist only to cover lander delays. He wrote that early this year very little was on schedule, including the core stage, Orion, spacesuits and the landers.

Nevertheless, landers still lag and remain the long pole in the tent. Most of that stems from a lack of Congressional funding early in the decade, which forced a very late start for the two competing vendors.

Lander timing was already extremely tight before the pad explosion. In April, Isaacman told a House Appropriations subcommittee that SpaceX and Blue Origin planned to fly the rendezvous and docking demonstration by late 2027. Space.com reported at the time that the landers were putting NASA’s 10-month launch cadence goal at risk.

Effects On The Schedule

Isaacman said the best case still puts Artemis III on the pad in summer 2027 and preserves as many as two lunar landing attempts in 2028. He acknowledged NASA could launch Artemis III and only Artemis IV in 2028 if that offers the best chance of success.

The memo says NASA will keep backup options open as long as it can. That includes preserving an Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage option while developing Centaur V in parallel. It also includes having Mobile Launcher 1 pad modification hardware ready to move as soon as Artemis III launches among other details.

The next major milestone in the program (aside from completing the assembly of the rocket) is a tanking test for the SLS rocket planned for Artemis III before the end of this year.