Why does the Artemis II mission orbit the Moon but not land?

At around 6:40 p.m. Eastern Time on the 6th (around 6:40 a.m. Beijing Time on the 7th), the Orion spacecraft carrying out NASA’s “Artemis 2” crewed lunar-orbit mission was on the far side of the Moon, and the four astronauts entered a planned state of about a 40-minute communications blackout.

During this period, the spacecraft’s closest distance to the Moon was 4,067 miles (6,545 kilometers), which is also the shortest distance from the spacecraft to the Moon’s surface in this mission; the farthest distance between the spacecraft and Earth was 252,756 miles (406,771 kilometers), setting a new record for the greatest distance achieved by human spaceflight.

More than half a century ago, U.S. astronauts first set foot on the Moon when they rode the Apollo 11 spacecraft. Today, the U.S. government hopes to return to the Moon through the Artemis program. Because key equipment such as the lunar lander and spacesuits for extravehicular activity are still not ready, current landing conditions are not yet mature. The Artemis 2 mission will only loop around the Moon, not land; its core objective is to systematically validate the entire crewed deep-space flight system.

Different mission objectives

The Apollo program was a series of crewed lunar landing missions organized by the United States during the Cold War. In 1957, the Soviet Union launched the world’s first artificial satellite, kicking off the space race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. In 1961, the Soviet Union conducted its first crewed spaceflight, putting the United States under intense pressure.

The fierce competition with the Soviet Union prompted the U.S. government at the time to push for a lunar landing with the strength of the whole nation, to compete for space advantage. After multiple rounds of flight testing, in 1969, the Apollo 11 spacecraft sent U.S. astronauts to the Moon. During the execution of the Apollo program, the United States achieved six crewed lunar landings, while the Soviet Union’s crewed lunar landing plan failed—this became a hallmark of the U.S. leading in the space race.

The Apollo program’s main purpose was to demonstrate capability. As noted by former director John Logsdon of the Space Policy Research Institute at George Washington University in the United States, the Apollo program was “a product of a particular historical period,” and was a case of America’s “extraordinary emergency response action” taken after it believed it was threatened.

Decades later, as technology became more mature, multiple countries around the world rolled out new lunar-exploration plans. In December 2017, U.S. President Trump announced that, within his first term, U.S. astronauts would return to the Moon and ultimately go to Mars. This plan was named “Artemis,” with the goal of sending astronauts to the Moon, maintaining the United States’ global leadership in space exploration, establishing “sustained lunar presence,” and paving the way for exploration of Mars.

Different technical route

The Artemis lunar landing plan is not a direct copy of the Apollo program; its complexity far exceeds that of the latter. Multiple media reports said that the equipment used in the Apollo program—such as the Saturn V launch vehicle—has already been retired and the production lines no longer exist, and that the current U.S. lunar-landing mission is using new technologies and new standards. This does not mean U.S. technology has regressed; rather, it is a transition to a new generation of systems designed for different exploration objectives.

The Artemis program adopts a relatively more prudent technical path: first unmanned test flights, then crewed lunar-orbit missions, and finally lunar landings. The Artemis 1 uncrewed lunar-orbit test mission was completed in November 2022, but due to technical challenges, schedule delays, cost overruns, and other issues, subsequent missions were repeatedly postponed, drawing widespread skepticism. The Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft used in the ongoing Artemis 2 mission are both carrying out crewed missions for the first time; their reliability will be put through comprehensive tests in the deep-space environment.

The latest mission timeline shows that the U.S. plans to conduct the Artemis 3 mission in 2027,开展ing system and operational capability testing in low Earth orbit; in 2028, it will carry out the Artemis 4 lunar landing mission.

In terms of choosing landing sites, the Apollo 11 spacecraft landed on the Moon’s near side, in the southern part of the “Sea of Tranquility,” in relatively flat terrain near the lunar equator. By contrast, the Artemis program selected a landing site near the Moon’s south pole, which is more challenging.

To build a lunar base and prepare for the eventual landing on Mars, water ice on the Moon has become an extremely valuable resource. The lunar south pole, where water ice is more concentrated, is the preferred landing spot. The Moon’s water-ice resources can not only help solve astronauts’ drinking-water needs, but may also be used to produce liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen—providing fuel for more distant deep-space exploration.

Obstacles still need to be overcome

However, for the United States to truly return to the Moon and establish “sustained lunar presence,” it still needs to overcome multiple obstacles.

Technically, in recent years, many NASA missions have adopted an “outsourcing” model, hoping to use competition among private companies to shorten development cycles and reduce costs. But this model has also exposed some drawbacks—for example, the lunar landers and spacesuits required by the Artemis program come from multiple companies, and overall progress has lagged.

At present, both the U.S. companies Space Exploration Technologies Corp. and Blue Origin are developing lunar landers, but neither has reached the practical stage. The lunar lander developed by Space Exploration Technologies is based on its heavy-lift rocket design, “Starship,” but 3 of the 5 test flights carried out in 2025 failed; meanwhile, Blue Origin’s lunar lander, “Blue Moon,” has not yet completed any actual flight test.

The next-generation spacesuit for lunar surface walks is being developed by Axiom Space in the United States, and it is still undergoing multiple rounds of testing and has not been delivered.

In addition, since Trump began his second term as president, personnel changes at the top levels of NASA have been frequent, adding uncertainty to long-cycle projects such as lunar landings. The “Gateway” lunar-orbit space station was originally a core architecture within the Artemis program, but in March this year NASA announced it would pause the “Gateway” program and instead advance the development of infrastructure that can support sustained operations on the lunar surface.

Source: Xinhua News Agency

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