Artemis II Mission Has Ended. Where Does NASA Go From Here?

The Artemis era well and truly began Friday evening when a shiny spacecraft that had traveled 700,000 miles around the Moon, carrying four astronauts, splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California.

For NASA, for its international partners, and for all of humanity the successful conclusion of the Artemis II mission marked a return to deep space by our species after more than half a century.

It was a spectacular achievement, and NASA deserves credit for making something what is very difficult look relatively easy. But it also raises an important question: What comes next?

NASA recently revised its mission plans for Artemis III and IV, to provide a stepping stone mission before undertaking the landing of humans on the Moon. Much, and more, work needs to be done to make those flights happen. And to be perfectly blunt, the Artemis II mission that concluded Friday was the lowest hanging fruit of the Artemis Program.

“The work ahead is greater than the work behind us,” said Amit Kshatriya, NASA’s associate administrator, after the landing on Friday night.