Artemis III Will Rehearse Moon Landings in Earth Orbit in 2027

Once docked, astronauts will spend about two days aboard. They'll open the hatch, enter the cabin and assess controls, the cabin environment and life-support systems firsthand. Teams will verify the spacecraft can hold proper atmosphere and pressure. The test article carries many of the avionics, software, flight-control, crew-cabin and life-support technologies planned for real lunar missions — the first chance to see them work in orbit as an integrated vehicle.

Takeaway: NASA gets its first crewed look at a commercial lunar lander, on orbit, before anyone risks the real thing.

How does the Starship test work?

After undocking from Blue Moon, Orion will reposition for a second rendezvous. SpaceX will launch a Starship Version 3 test article from Florida later in the mission, since Starship is designed for a shorter on-orbit lifetime than Blue Moon's lander. It will enter a lower orbit at 206 nautical miles, optimized for communications coverage, with an added docking system at its nose.

Orion will dock with Starship in a test expected to last up to two hours. Crew will not enter the vehicle. The focus is how the two spacecraft behave as a docked system: controllability, communications, integrated software and the dynamics of docking and undocking.

The two campaigns also test different docking geometries. Orion connects beside Blue Moon's crew cabin, then aligns its forward docking system with Starship's nose port. Two approaches, one mission, double the engineering data.

Takeaway: one flight will prove Orion can work with two very different commercial lander designs.

What else will the crew test?

Plenty. After the Starship demonstration, the crew will have up to five additional days in orbit for secondary objectives, including:

• Extra evaluations of the Orion Crew Survival System suits
• Docking sensor tests
• Acoustic and thermal measurements
• Human-factors assessments
• Science and technology demonstrations

Several investigations build on studies from Artemis II. The crew will run a proof-of-concept study on health assessments without direct contact with mission control — a key capability for missions far from Earth. NASA will also fly a cellular biology experiment, test concepts for returning and curating lunar samples, and assess Orion's environment for contamination risks.

Earth and solar observations will keep crew observation skills sharp, and plant seeds will fly aboard for post-mission science and education outreach. Mission planners built schedule flexibility into the timeline to capture more objectives if operations allow.

When ready, Orion will configure for reentry and splash down in the Pacific off the California coast, recovered by NASA personnel and the U.S. Navy.

Takeaway: even the spare days are packed with work that feeds later Moon and Mars missions.

Why rehearse in Earth orbit at all?

Because the stakes in 2028 are high. Artemis III gives NASA hands-on experience managing complex rendezvous and docking operations across three spacecraft and multiple commercial partners, plus insight into interoperability, mission-control coordination and hardware performance.

NASA frames the mission as part of a broader push: increasingly difficult flights near the lunar South Pole, an enduring human presence on the surface, and groundwork for the first crewed mission to Mars. The bottom line for 2027 — practice the landings in orbit, so the actual landings go smoothly.