NASA leaders to update Artemis acceleration and 2028 Moon landing plan at Kennedy on Oct. 23

NASA's top leadership will come to Kennedy Space Center on Friday, Oct. 23, to lay out the status of the agency's push to land American astronauts on the Moon by 2028, NASA announced Wednesday. The 2 p.m. EDT briefing will feature NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya and Artemis program manager Jeremy Parsons, and it comes as the rocket for the next crewed Artemis flight takes shape inside the Vehicle Assembly Building on Florida's Space Coast.

According to the agency's media advisory, the officials will provide an update on Artemis acceleration and details on the Artemis III mission, which is planned to send four astronauts to low Earth orbit next year to test systems needed for later lunar landings. The briefing will stream online at nasa.gov/live.

What NASA has said it will cover

The advisory, issued Oct. 14, describes the session as an update on NASA's plans to return Americans to the lunar surface by 2028 and on progress toward that goal. It does not preview any new decisions, and NASA has not said whether the briefing will bring changes to the schedule or mission plans.

U.S. media who want to attend in person at Kennedy must apply by noon Friday, Oct. 16, according to the advisory. Reporters asking questions remotely must request a dial-in number from the Kennedy newsroom no later than one hour before the event.

How the Artemis plan changed this year

The word acceleration traces back to February. On Feb. 27, NASA announced it was adding a mission to the Artemis program and reworking its architecture. Artemis III, once planned as the first crewed landing since Apollo, became a 2027 test flight in low Earth orbit, and the landing moved to Artemis IV, targeted for 2028. NASA said it planned at least one surface landing every year after that.

Under that plan, Artemis III would include a rendezvous and docking with one or both commercial lunar landers being built by SpaceX and Blue Origin, in-space tests of the docked vehicles, checkouts of life support, communications and propulsion systems, and tests of new spacesuits, according to the February release. NASA said it would share specific mission objectives later, which is one reason the Oct. 23 briefing is drawing attention.

"NASA must standardize its approach, increase flight rate safely, and execute on the President's national space policy," Isaacman said in the February announcement. He added, "With credible competition from our greatest geopolitical adversary increasing by the day, we need to move faster, eliminate delays, and achieve our objectives."

Kshatriya said in the same release that landing missions should fly in "as close to the same Earth ascent configuration as possible," meaning an upper stage and launch pad systems as close as possible to the current Block 1 version of the Space Launch System.

Artemis II set the stage

The acceleration plan rests on the success of Artemis II. The Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft lifted off from Kennedy on April 1, 2026, carrying NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen on a trip around the Moon. Orion splashed down in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego at 8:07 p.m. EDT on April 10, according to NASA.

Earlier this month, NASA released the full lunar science dataset from the crew's flyby, more than 800 gigabytes of data and images, for scientists and the public.

Where Artemis III stands at Kennedy

The hardware for the next flight is coming together in Brevard County. On Sept. 30, engineers with NASA's Exploration Ground Systems program attached the nose cones to the forward assemblies of the twin solid rocket boosters in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building, completing booster stacking on the mobile launcher, NASA said in an Oct. 13 status update.

The update laid out what comes next:

• The SLS core stage, which now has all four RS-25 engines installed, will be integrated with the boosters in the coming weeks to complete a short stack.
• NASA plans to roll that short stack to Launch Pad 39B in the coming months for a tanking test to practice propellant loading procedures and timelines.
• The Artemis III crew will conduct a launch day rehearsal and an emergency exit walkdown at the pad.
• Teams are refurbishing the pad's flame deflector, which NASA said sustained minimal damage during the Artemis II launch.
• Rocket adapters and a spacer being built at Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama are on track to ship to Kennedy early next year.

The Artemis III crew of Randy Bresnik, Frank Rubio, Andre Douglas and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano has been training for the mission, including underwater helicopter egress training and practice water lifts with Navy helicopters, NASA said. The crew has also visited SpaceX and Blue Origin to learn about the companies' lander progress.

Why it matters for the Space Coast

For Central Florida, the cadence NASA promised in February would mean a crewed Artemis launch from Kennedy every year rather than every few years. Each SLS mission brings months of stacking and processing work inside the Vehicle Assembly Building, rollouts to Pad 39B and launch crowds that fill hotels and beaches from Titusville to Cocoa Beach.

The program also ties together much of the Space Coast's commercial base. Both lunar lander providers, SpaceX and Blue Origin, run major operations in Brevard County, and the February plan made their vehicles central to Artemis III. Any change to that mission's scope or timing announced on Oct. 23 would ripple through work at Kennedy and at the companies' Florida sites.

There are also open questions. NASA has said Artemis III will fly in 2027, but it has not publicly set a launch date, and the Oct. 13 status update did not include one. The 2028 landing remains a target, not a commitment, and it depends on the commercial landers being ready.

What's next

The briefing is set for 2 p.m. EDT Friday, Oct. 23, at Kennedy, and will be streamed at nasa.gov/live. In the weeks after, teams at Kennedy are expected to join the SLS core stage to the boosters and prepare the short stack for its trip to Pad 39B for tanking tests, the next visible milestone for Artemis III on the Space Coast.