NASA landed astronauts on the moon for the first time in 1969, and then five times more. So why is it that in 2026 NASA is talking about going back to the moon, but not landing on it?
Landing people on the moon is difficult, and no one has done it since 1972.
That’s because after Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon during Apollo 11, many Americans felt that the space race with the Soviet Union was won and that further lunar exploration was not worth the expense. In the decades since, NASA has focused on low-Earth orbit with the space shuttles and the International Space Station.
But now the United States wants to go back to the moon (and China wants to go for the first time). President Trump made returning to the moon a priority during his first administration, and the program continued under President Biden.
The moon is a logical place to send people, both as a place to explore scientifically, and as somewhere that could be mined for resources like frozen water for later space missions, and helium-3 for futuristic energy technologies.
But, with a task as complicated as settling on the moon, can be achieved, it is smart not to try to do too many things at once, especially when human lives are at stake.
Things have changed since humans last traveled as far as the moon in 1972. Current technology, especially computers, have advanced far beyond what was available during the Apollo era. Inevitably, something will not work exactly as designed, and it will be good to identify and fix those issues before attempting a landing.
That’s part of the purpose of Artemis II.
Also, NASA cannot land on the moon without a moon lander, and there is not one ready yet.
SpaceX, Elon Musk’s company, has a contract to build such a spacecraft. So does Blue Origin, the space company started by Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon. Under the current schedule, NASA wants to attempt two landings 2028.
The Artemis II contract went to older NASA contractors. Boeing, Northrop Grumman and United Launch Alliance built the pieces of the Space Launch System rocket that will launch today, and Lockheed Martin built the Orion capsule that the S.L.S. rocket carries.
There’s another thing NASA needs before it can return people to the moon: new spacesuits for astronauts to wear while stepping out from the lander. Those are under development by a company called Axiom Space of Houston.
Kenneth Chang, a science reporter at The Times, covers NASA and the solar system, and research closer to Earth.
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