Space

Mission Artemis, the year 2026 paves the way for the lunar economy

Nasa and Esa are scheduled to launch on 6 February. SpaceShip, SpaceX's launcher, is delayed

by Leopoldo Benacchio

16 January 2026

I quattro astronauti della missione Artemis II: Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover e Christina Koch della Nasa, e Jeremy Hansen dell’Agenzia Spaziale Canadese, davanti alla navetta Orion che li porterà fino alla Luna

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Key points

Ten Days of Mission
Not just a landing: going to the moon to stay there
What will happen in orbit?
SpaceX's numerous delays
Chinese and US private enterprise

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Back to the Moon in 2026, and in a big way too. In the meantime, NASA, with Esa and many other partners, are re-starting the Artemis programme: it will go around our natural satellite with the repeatedly postponed Artemis II mission, which will take four astronauts to skim the lunar surface for the first time in over 50 years. It could be launched from 6 February onwards, until late April.

Throughout the year, however, there will be a succession of lunar landings by private operators, Jeff Bezos in the lead with his Blue Moon lander, who will attempt to arrive both in the face we see from Earth and on the other side, where so far only China has managed to lunar land, in 2019.

Ten Days Mission

The Artemis II mission will last about ten days and will take the astronauts further into space than any Apollo mission. The crew includes Nasa commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialist Christina Koch. A second mission specialist, Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency, will also be on board.

It may seem a bit frustrating, especially for the astronauts who have prepared for it in intense and tiring months, to have to get there, look at the Moon through the window, almost as if they were space tourists, and then go back to Earth, but the mission is a crucial step, as was the similar one for the Apollo programme, to test the whole system and means before the actual descent to the ground.

Not just a landing: going to the Moon to stay there

However, it must be remembered that Artemis is an entirely different programme from the glorious Apollo of the 1970s. This time, in fact, it is about paving the way back to the Moon to stay there, building dwellings, roads, laboratories, landing and take-off runways, and even opening mines to extract valuable materials for terrestrial technologies. In sum, to start a real lunar economy open more and more to private individuals and capable of sustaining itself.

The first critical aspect of the overall project is the launcher that is to carry the Orion capsule into orbit, and the complex service system provided by Europe, which gives the Orion capsule everything it needs for the flight to the Moon. The previous test, Artemis I, went well, using the 'old' and criticised Sls, Space Launch System, which is none other than the rocket used for the Shuttle missions, revised and upgraded, given that a lot more power is needed to go to the Moon than to go into low orbit, under a thousand kilometres.

What will happen in orbit?

Artemis II's journey is quite complex: it will be placed in a high Earth orbit, in which it will remain for hours to perform a check of all on-board systems, then, after a day or so, it will carry out the manoeuvre to the Moon using only the engine of the Orion capsule. From there it will circumnavigate our satellite and return to Earth, docking in the Pacific. It is planned to test the manual piloting, check the life support, power supply and navigation of the Orion capsule, which has so far always kept its promises.

SpaceX's numerous delays

The real bone of contention, however, is the big, brand new SpaceShip launcher, by SpaceX, which has suffered many delays, many heavy setbacks, and now seems to be in place. To speak very clearly: it is the essential element for the complex Artemis programme, which involves dozens of launches a year to the Moon, to transport astronauts and essential materials, and also the large parts for the new cislunar space station, the Lunar Gateway, which is to act as the trait d'union between Moon and Earth. There the astronauts will arrive in the future before descending to our satellite, and there they will return for a rest and work cycle and to return to Earth. The first flight by SpaceShip will be that of Artemis III, then the one immediately following, but if the rocket has created delays, these are affecting the 'Ship' part, i.e. the part that has to get to the Moon, get the astronauts down and then get them back off the Moon. Artemis III is then very complicated because it requires Starship to refuel in orbit, from tanks brought there previously, again with SpaceX launchers. Many wonder whether it is not now time to accelerate the construction of Bezos' rocket and lander, which was planned for 2032, and bring it to 2028. Honestly, it seems unfeasible, perhaps in Nasa's announcement of the Artemis fio programme to 2040 they wanted to exaggerate so as not to show that China, quietly as ever, is proceeding with its lunar programme, which envisages the lunar landing of its first human crew for 2030, in the same area, the lunar South Pole.

However, when the Artemis III knot is overcome, whether Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos succeeds in landing the first woman on the Moon, the situation can be unblocked and with the subsequent flights, Artemis IV and V, the serious work of building the Lunar Gateway space station can finally begin, for the construction of which Italy has provided and will provide essential elements.

Chinese and US private companies

In addition to the complex Artemis programme, in 2026 we will see China's new Chang'e 7 craft on the Moon, and American private companies field-testing their craft, lunar landers that will be needed in the near future, if the 'private' vision of lunar business succeeds. These are IM-3, by Intuitive Machines, with its Nova-C lander; Blue Ghost by Firefly, which wants to venture to the hidden side of our satellite; and Griffin by Astrobotic Technology towards the South Pole.