Level 1 — Absolute Beginner
NASA wants to send astronauts back to the Moon. Before that happens, NASA plans a big practice mission in space near Earth.
Four astronauts will fly in a spacecraft called Orion. They will meet two different Moon landers built by two companies, SpaceX and Blue Origin.
First, the astronauts will practice with Blue Origin's lander, called Blue Moon. Then they will practice with SpaceX's giant Starship lander.
NASA says this practice is important. It will help everyone learn how to safely land astronauts on the Moon in a future mission.
- astronaut
- a person trained to travel and work in space
- spacecraft
- a vehicle designed to travel in space
- lander
- a spacecraft built to land on a moon or planet
- rehearsal
- a practice run before doing the real thing
- orbit
- the curved path an object takes around a planet or moon
- dock
- to connect two spacecraft together in space
- mission
- a planned journey with a specific goal, especially in space
- schedule
- a plan of when things will happen
Level 2 — Elementary
NASA is preparing for its next crewed Moon landing with an unusually ambitious rehearsal held entirely in orbit around Earth, rather than on the way to the Moon itself. Four astronauts will travel aboard NASA's Orion capsule to practice the rendezvous and docking procedures needed for the actual Artemis III mission.
The rehearsal involves two separate spacecraft. Blue Origin will send up a test version of its Blue Moon lander first, built with the same life-support systems and electronics planned for the real mission, and even carrying a spacesuit simulator to monitor conditions inside the cabin.
After that test is complete, SpaceX will launch a version of its Starship lander. Because Starship is so much larger than Orion, the two spacecraft will dock nose to nose rather than through a side hatch, and astronauts will not go inside the Starship during this rehearsal. Instead, the focus will be on testing communications and software between the two giant vehicles.
NASA says it is keeping its 2027 timeline for Artemis III, even though a Blue Origin rocket explosion during a launchpad test earlier this year damaged the facility. Blue Origin says it expects repairs to be finished and launches to resume before the end of the year.
- crewed
- carrying human passengers or astronauts, not just cargo
- rendezvous
- a planned meeting of two spacecraft in orbit
- life-support system
- equipment that keeps astronauts alive and safe in space
- spacesuit simulator
- a device that mimics a spacesuit to test cabin conditions
- hatch
- a door-like opening used to enter or exit a spacecraft
- timeline
- a planned schedule of when events will occur
- launchpad
- the structure a rocket launches from
- facility
- a building or place built for a specific purpose
Level 3 — Intermediate
NASA is preparing for its next lunar landing with an unusually elaborate orbital dress rehearsal, one that will test both competing commercial landers under development for the Artemis program before either is asked to carry astronauts down to the lunar surface. Four crew members will launch aboard an Orion capsule into low Earth orbit specifically to rehearse rendezvous and docking procedures with prototype versions of both vehicles.
Blue Origin's Blue Moon test lander is scheduled to fly first, outfitted with the same life-support systems and avionics intended for the operational version and carrying a spacesuit simulator to validate cabin environmental conditions ahead of any crewed flight aboard the real vehicle.
SpaceX's Starship lander presents a fundamentally different engineering challenge. Given its scale relative to Orion, the two vehicles will dock nose-to-nose rather than through a conventional docking port, and astronauts will remain in Orion throughout, with the exercise instead validating communications links and software interoperability between the spacecraft rather than crew transfer procedures.
NASA has maintained its 2027 target for Artemis III despite a setback: a Blue Origin rocket explosion during a launchpad test earlier this year damaged ground infrastructure the company needs for future launches. Program officials, including astronaut and commercial-spaceflight veteran Jared Isaacman, have expressed confidence that repairs will be completed with sufficient margin to keep New Glenn, Blue Origin's primary launch vehicle, on schedule to support NASA's timeline.
- dress rehearsal
- a full practice run conducted exactly as the real event will occur
- prototype
- an early test version of a vehicle or product built before the final version
- avionics
- the electronic systems used in aircraft and spacecraft
- operational version
- the final version of a vehicle intended for actual use, not just testing
- docking port
- a fitted connection point that allows two spacecraft to join together
- interoperability
- the ability of different systems to work together correctly
- ground infrastructure
- the physical facilities on Earth that support launches, such as launchpads
- margin
- extra time or resources kept in reserve in case of delay
Level 4 — Advanced
NASA's approach to validating the Artemis III lunar landing architecture has taken an unusually deliberate turn: rather than proceeding directly to a crewed descent once a single lander is deemed flight-ready, the agency is staging an orbital dress rehearsal in which an Orion-borne crew will separately rendezvous and dock with prototype vehicles from both of its competing commercial lander providers, a sequencing choice that effectively de-risks two independent, technologically divergent programs in parallel rather than betting the mission's schedule on either one alone.
The Blue Moon segment of the exercise is the more conventional of the two, exercising life-support and avionics systems intended for eventual crewed flight and incorporating a spacesuit simulator to characterize cabin environmental performance, a fidelity choice that suggests NASA intends this rehearsal's data to carry weight in the eventual crewed-flight certification process rather than serving as a purely symbolic dry run.
The Starship segment, by contrast, is constrained by an engineering reality that no amount of procedural planning can circumvent: the sheer disparity in scale between Orion and a vehicle originally conceived for interplanetary payloads necessitates a nose-to-nose docking geometry rather than a conventional hatch-to-hatch interface, and confines the exercise's scope to communications and software interoperability, deferring the more operationally consequential question of crew transfer procedures to a later phase of testing.
That NASA has elected to preserve its 2027 timeline despite a Blue Origin launchpad anomaly earlier this year, one significant enough to damage ground infrastructure the company depends on for New Glenn operations, reflects a program-management judgment articulated by figures such as Jared Isaacman: that the margin built into the schedule, and Blue Origin's own repair trajectory, remain sufficient to absorb the setback without cascading into the orbital rehearsal itself or the crewed landing it is designed to de-risk.
- architecture
- the overall structural design of a complex system or mission
- de-risk
- to reduce the chance of failure in a plan or project by testing components early
- sequencing
- the order in which steps of a process are carried out
- fidelity
- the degree to which a test accurately represents the real conditions it simulates
- certification
- the formal process of confirming a system meets required standards
- disparity
- a significant difference between two things being compared
- operationally consequential
- having a real, practical impact on how a mission is carried out
- cascading
- spreading in a chain reaction from one effect to the next
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