Artemis III scheduled to launch in 2027, is one of the most complex human spaceflight campaigns ever engineered, requiring a coordinated "dance" of three separate heavy-lift rockets. Unlike the initial plan to land on the Moon, NASA restructured Artemis III into a high-stakes, low Earth orbit rehearsal to thoroughly test private lunar landers before the crewed lunar landing on Artemis IV. The three unique rockets powering this mission include: 1⃣ NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) 🚀 The Mission Vehicle: The SLS rocket serves as the backbone of the campaign, tasked with launching the four-person crew inside the Orion spacecraft into orbit. Current Status NASA is actively stacking the twin solid rocket boosters inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center. Configuration Twist Since Artemis III will remain in Earth orbit rather than pushing out to deep space, it will bypass using an interim cryogenic upper stage saving that final booster hardware exclusively for the Moon-bound Artemis IV flight. 2⃣ Blue Origin's New Glenn🚀 The First Launch: Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket will kick off the entire campaign. The Payload: It will carry Blue Origin's Blue Moon Mark 2 human landing system test article into space, establishing a parking orbit up to 30 days before the crew arrives. Once in orbit, the Orion crew will dock with it first to test its onboard life-support networks. 3⃣ SpaceX's Super Heavy / Starship🚀 The Final Rendezvous Following the Blue Origin phase, SpaceX will launch its massive Starship Human Landing System (HLS) test article using the giant Super Heavy booster. The Payload Orion will detach from Blue Moon and execute a nose-to-nose docking with Starship. While no crew will enter Starship for this flight, it will remain docked for a day so NASA and SpaceX can test communications, physical interfaces, and structural controllability across the full spacecraft stack.