The Lunar Week: Artemis briefing on October 23 and Artemis III stacking progress

This week on the Moon

The week's lunar calendar centers on a NASA news conference rather than a launch. NASA said it will hold the briefing at 2 p.m. EDT on Friday, October 23, at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya and Artemis program manager Jeremy Parsons. NASA said it will provide an update on its plans to return American astronauts to the surface of the Moon by 2028.^[1]

United States

At Kennedy Space Center, NASA teams completed the integration of the final solid rocket booster motor segments onto the mobile launcher for the short stack configuration of the Artemis III Space Launch System rocket, which will be used during a tanking test. Teams also completed installation of all four RS-25 engines on the core stage. NASA said the core stage will be integrated with the boosters in the coming weeks, and the short stack will roll to Launch Pad 39B for the tanking test in the coming months.^[2]

NASA said additional engineering analysis of the Orion heat shield from Artemis II confirmed initial data showing that it performed as expected. NASA described Artemis II as having sent four astronauts around the Moon and brought them safely back to Earth.^[3][4]

Griffin-1, the Voyager Technologies lunar lander, completed nearly three months of environmental testing at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in late September 2026 and was shipped back to Voyager's Pittsburgh facility for final assembly. NASA said Griffin-1 is expected to launch in late 2026 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, carrying 10 payloads from six countries to Nobile Crater near the lunar South Pole.^[5]

Launch Library 2, a public launch database, changed its listing for the Falcon Heavy launch of Gateway's Power and Propulsion Element and HALO module on October 15, moving the placeholder date from the end of 2027 to the end of 2029. The database marks the date as to be determined, meaning it is a placeholder rather than an announced schedule.^[6]

Space.com reported that Artemis II mission specialist Christina Koch will become NASA's acting deputy chief engineer on November 1, a move that NASA said ends her eligibility for future spaceflight assignments, and that all four Artemis II astronauts have now moved on to different roles. Space.com also reported that the Artemis II crew was honored with the Stephen Hawking Medal for science communication at the Starmus VIII festival.^[7]

China

Nothing new for China in our data this week.

Elsewhere

Payload Space reported that JAXA has selected the Japanese startup ArkEdge Space for two lunar navigation projects: a study of adding a navigation receiver to the pressurized crew rover JAXA is developing for the Artemis program, and a receiver for signals from Japan's lunar navigation demonstration satellite.^[10]

Tracker check

The SpaceNexus tracker, as of October 11, shows the United States at 3.5 of 8 rungs and China at 1.75 of 8 rungs on the crewed landing ladder, with the status reading United States leads on demonstrated milestones. The tracker lists NASA's target as 2028 (NASA target: early 2028) for Artemis IV, and China's as Before 2030 (2030年前).^[11][12]

On the permanent presence ladder, the tracker shows the United States at 1 of 8 rungs and China at 1.25 of 8 rungs, with the status Level on demonstrated milestones. The projected first crewed landing entry reads Too close to call.^[13][14][15]

Since October 11, our data picked up one schedule change, the Gateway launch placeholder described above, and two new event listings: an RS-25 engine test and the Artemis press conference.^[6][16][17]