Artemis IV: Trial Run For Moon Landing By 2028

A Playful Test Run for the Next Trip to the Moon

Take a peek at an intriguing trial concept floating around late October 2026, where Jared Isaacman test-pilots a fresh operational briefing at NASA Headquarters. Could this test framework line up an astronaut landing as soon as 2028 under Artemis IV? We get to treat this whole plan as an exploratory trial that pools different rockets together, and I want to argue that testing ideas out loud makes space travel far more fun.

Let us look at the high-Earth orbit handoff. SpaceX aims thirty-three Raptor engines at the sky from Starbase, Texas, uncorking over sixteen million pounds of thrust to send Starship into space. In this trial scenario, Starship meets the Orion capsule high above Earth rather than out near the Moon. Think of Starship as a friendly celestial ferry.

It carries the bulk propellant, hitches up with Orion, and gives the smaller craft a big push toward lunar space.

That spares Orion from burning its own modest tanks just to reach lunar orbit.

Clever, right?

Blue Origin steps into this trial run with a very different flavor of engineering. They test a flight plan that uses four launches of their New Glenn rocket from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral. The trial skips in-space cryogenic refuelings entirely, sidestepping the headache where sunshine warms liquid hydrogen and boils cold fuel away into empty space.

This test trial asks whether the Blue Moon lander can zip straight into low lunar orbit to greet Orion on its own terms.

It offers astronauts a direct path toward the lunar south pole without extra gas stops along the way.

Then we have Artemis III in the summer of 2027, framed here as an orbital rehearsal tucked right inside seventy thousand kilometers of Earth. Why run far away when you can test your gadgets close to home? Astronauts check life-support transfers, test docking tunnels, and match radio signals with Starship and Blue Moon while Earth still fills the window. You check every latch. You test every hatch. If a computer burps, you fix it right here.

Here is where I get passionate about the numbers. Orion carries the European Service Module, but that service module holds only about eight point six metric tons of fuel. That gives the craft roughly thirteen hundred meters per second of velocity nudge. Forcing Orion to drop all the way down into low lunar orbit and climb back out on its own dime leaves zero cushion for emergency abort burns.

You need that gas. You want extra margins so the capsule can slice safely back through the air at forty thousand kilometers per hour. Shifting the heavy braking to the big landers keeps the math sensible.

It keeps the crew safe.

Do you hear the friendly debate echoing between the flight planners in Houston and the propulsion teams in Huntsville? Engineers argued through 2024 and 2025 over whether giant orbiting fuel tanks carry more risk than fancy orbital rendezvous maneuvers near Earth.

This trial architecture weaves both perspectives into an energetic, working compromise.

It feels messy, bold, and delightfully human.

If we want to reach the Moon, running trials like this gives everyone a seat at the drafting table!