NASA's revised 2028 Artemis campaign: no lander pick until both are tested
From the Space digest for 2026-10-24
What happened: NASA published its October Artemis update in the early hours of October 24 (12:20–12:25 AM ET), laying out the revised campaign toward a 2028 Moon landing. The agency's plan now has Orion docking with test versions of both the SpaceX Starship and Blue Origin Moon landers in Earth orbit before any lunar landing, and per MSN's relay of the campaign outline, NASA will not decide which lander to use until those flight tests show which one is ready. NASASpaceflight's write-up of the same "Artemis Acceleration" media event (published 12:25 AM ET) adds the SLS stacking status, details on the new "Sortie" EVA spacesuit, and the "dual 2028 paths" strategic frame. Around Prague's write-up corroborates the dual-lander Earth-orbit test plan.
What's genuinely new: Two things. First, the lander selection is now explicitly open — the choice between Starship HLS and the Blue Origin lander is gated on test results, not on a pre-committed lane, which reshapes what "2028" means in practice. Second, NASASpaceflight's rundown adds SLS stacking status and the "Sortie" EVA-suit details alongside the dual-path framing already circulating from the October 23 Kennedy briefing.
Watch: the year-end tanking test; whether the summer 2027 Artemis III window survives the added dual-docking choreography; the early-2028 uncrewed-landing targets both providers carry; and the unresolved Starship-refueling count dispute (NASA advisers' "around 22" vs Musk's "6 to 8").
Links: MSN · NASASpaceflight.com · Around Prague