NASA completes Artemis III SLS short stack for 2027 docking rehearsal

SLS short stack completed

NASA lifted the 212-foot core stage for the Artemis III Space Launch System out of High Bay 2 at the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center on Oct. 28, 2026. Teams joined it to the twin solid rocket boosters in High Bay 3, completing what NASA calls the short stack configuration, tech-insider.org reported. The stage now stands between its boosters on the mobile launcher. The short stack is not the full rocket; later flight hardware has not joined the stack, according to tech-insider.org. The next major hardware test is waiting at Launch Pad 39B, the outlet reported.

Three launches, two dockings

Artemis III is planned for summer 2027. It will not go to the moon. Four astronauts will fly in Orion to low Earth orbit, where they will dock with two prototype lunar landers, one from Blue Origin and one from SpaceX, Yahoo News reported. NASA has called it the most complicated mission it has ever attempted: four astronauts, three rocket launches, three spacecraft and two dockings. The flight is planned for about 14 days and could stretch to 17, compared with nine days for Artemis II, Yahoo News reported.

Yahoo News reported that Blue Origin's New Glenn goes first from Florida with an uncrewed Blue Moon Mark 2 test lander. NASA says the vehicle can remain in orbit for up to 30 days, giving the campaign scheduling flexibility, Tech My Money reported. Then NASA's SLS launches Orion and the crew from Kennedy Space Center, Yahoo News reported. Orion will maneuver to meet Blue Moon after its own systems checks. Tech My Money described the launches as planned only days apart.

Yahoo News reported that Orion docks with Blue Moon on flight day three. The crew enters the lander and spends about two days checking its cabin, controls and life support. Starship launches later, on flight day six, according to Yahoo News. SpaceX is flying a Starship Version 3 test article, which NASA says has a shorter planned orbital lifetime, so it launches later, Tech My Money reported. The Starship docking is expected to last up to two hours, and the crew will stay inside Orion. Teams will assess the coupled vehicles' control, communications, software and docking dynamics. The docking arrangements differ: Orion will connect beside Blue Moon's crew cabin and at a forward port on Starship, Tech My Money reported.

After undocking, Orion may spend up to five additional days in orbit on other objectives before reentry and a planned Pacific splashdown, Tech My Money reported. Those objectives include tests of crew survival suits, docking sensors and the spacecraft's environment, plus science and technology demonstrations. Yahoo News reported that the return will test an upgraded heat shield.

NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik commands the mission. Luca Parmitano is the pilot. Frank Rubio and Andre Douglas are mission specialists. Yahoo News identified Parmitano as being of the Italian Space Agency; Tech My Money described him as a European Space Agency astronaut. Bob Heintz is the backup crew member, Yahoo News reported.

Why NASA changed the mission

Artemis III was originally conceived as the first crewed lunar landing since Apollo 17 in 1972. NASA changed its plans in February 2026 because the SpaceX Starship lander contracted to carry astronauts to the surface was not ready, and the in-orbit refueling it depends on had never been demonstrated, Yahoo News reported. NASA repurposed the mission as a crewed docking rehearsal. Artemis IV, targeted for 2028, is planned as the first crewed landing. Space.com reported that NASA could still select Blue Origin's Blue Moon lander for Artemis IV if SpaceX cannot demonstrate its orbital refueling strategy or pull off an uncrewed lunar landing by the end of next year, assuming Blue Moon meets its required boxes.

Refueling remains the open question

For Artemis IV, SpaceX plans to use a depot ship and multiple tanker flights in low Earth orbit before the Starship lander meets Orion. A 2021 Government Accountability Office audit estimated up to 16 tanker flights for a Starship lunar landing, Space.com reported. Space.com also reported that a member of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel said the number could be as high as 22, and that Elon Musk replied on X that it would be closer to six or eight. NASA's Artemis IV graphic labels the tanker flights only as (multiple). A March 2026 GAO report found that SpaceX had made limited progress maturing the refueling technology, and the first refueling demonstration is optimistically scheduled for late 2026, Yahoo News reported.

Pad and schedule risk

Blue Origin's only launch pad at Cape Canaveral was seriously damaged on May 28, 2026, after a rocket exploded during an engine test, Yahoo News reported. Rebuilding has taken months. NASA says it is working with Blue Origin and is confident the pad will be ready by December or January 2027, so it can meet the timeline for Artemis III in summer 2027, Yahoo News reported.