[23] On April 15, 2010, President Obama spoke at the Kennedy Space Center, announcing the administration's plans for NASA and cancelling the non-Orion elements of Constellation on the premise that the program had become nonviable.

[24] He instead proposed US$6 billion in additional funding and called for development of a new heavy-lift rocket program to be ready for construction by 2015 with crewed missions to Mars orbit by the mid-2030s.

[26] On June 30, 2017, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to re-establish the National Space Council, chaired by Vice-President Mike Pence.

The policy calls for the NASA administrator to "lead an innovative and sustainable program of exploration with commercial and international partners to enable human expansion across the Solar System and to bring back to Earth new knowledge and opportunities".

[29] On May 16, 2019, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced that the new program would be named Artemis, after the goddess of the Moon in Greek mythology who is the twin sister of Apollo.

NASA Chief Financial Officer Jeff DeWit said he thought the agency has "a very good shot" to get this budget through Congress despite Democratic concerns around the program.

[38][39][40] Throughout February 2021, Acting Administrator of NASA Steve Jurczyk reiterated those budget concerns when asked about the project's schedule,[41][42] clarifying that "The 2024 lunar landing goal may no longer be a realistic target [...]".

It announced in March 2022 that it was developing new sustainability rules and pursuing both a Starship HLS upgrade (an option under the initial SpaceX contract) and new competing alternative designs.

[79][80] Notably, the SLS core stage for Artemis II was the last to be fully built at the Michoud Assembly Facility: future missions starting with Artemis III will have the core stage partly built after arriving at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, managed by Exploration Ground Systems, which was deemed to be more efficient by program officials.

[81] In July, the Orion spacecraft was moved from the testing cell to the altitude chamber inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at KSC.

[84] In March 2024, NASA announced the scientific instruments to be included on the mission were a compact, autonomous seismometer suite called the Lunar Environment Monitoring Station, or LEMS.

According to NASA, the objectives of this mission would be to deliver the Habitable Mobility Platform (Lunar Cruiser) to the surface of the moon on an SLS Block 1B rocket.

[114][115] In November 2019, NASA added five contractors to the group of companies who are eligible to bid to send large payloads to the surface of the Moon under the CLPS program: Blue Origin, Ceres Robotics, Sierra Nevada Corporation, SpaceX, and Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems.

[139][140] The Artemis Accords have been criticized by some American researchers as "a concerted, strategic effort to redirect international space cooperation in favor of short-term U.S. commercial interests".

[148] The Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) module and the Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) of the Gateway, which were previously planned for the SLS Block 1B,[149] will now fly together on a Falcon Heavy in 2027.

NASA is required by the U.S. Congress to use SLS Block 1, which will be powerful enough to lift a payload of 95 metric tons (209,000 lb) to low Earth orbit (LEO), and will launch Artemis I, II, and III.

Capable of supporting a crew of six beyond low Earth orbit, Orion is equipped with solar panels, an automated docking system, and glass cockpit interfaces modeled after those used in the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

[191][192] The equipment delivered by Dragon XL missions could include sample collection materials, spacesuits and other items astronauts may need on the Gateway and on the surface of the Moon, according to NASA.

[193] The Dragon XL will stay at the Gateway for 6 to 12 months at a time, when research payloads inside and outside the cargo vessel could be operated remotely, even when crews are not present.

However, when it is within "tens of meters" of the lunar surface during descent and ascent, it will use high-thrust methane/oxygen RCS thrusters located mid-body instead of the Raptors to avoid raising dust via plume impingement.

[201] NASA's Gateway is an in-development mini-space station in lunar orbit intended to serve as a solar-powered communication hub, science laboratory, short-term habitation module, and holding area for rovers and other robots.

The original concept was a robotic, high performance solar electric spacecraft that would retrieve a multi-ton boulder from an asteroid and bring it to lunar orbit for study.

[207][208] The PPE is intended to have a mass of 8–9 tonnes and the capability to generate 50 kW[209] of solar electric power for its ion thrusters, which can be supplemented by chemical propulsion.

[150][151] The HALO is based on a Cygnus Cargo resupply module[214] to the outside of which radial docking ports, body mounted radiators (BMRs), batteries and communications antennae will be added.

[224] On April 3, 2024, NASA announced that Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost and Venturi Astrolab are the three companies developing the LTV in a 12-month feasibility and demo phase.

The Artemis program will make use of two types of space suit revealed in October 2019: the Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU),[241] and the Orion Crew Survival System (OCSS).

[242] On August 10, 2021, a NASA Office of Inspector General audit reported a conclusion that the spacesuits would not be ready until April 2025 at the earliest, likely delaying the mission from the then planned late 2024.

Its reaction control system and other components were tested during two medium Earth orbits, reaching an apogee of 5,800 km (3,600 mi) and crossing the Van Allen radiation belts before making a high-energy re-entry at 32,000 km/h (20,000 mph).

[182][264][265] Prior to each crewed Artemis mission, payloads to the Gateway, such as refueling depots and expendable elements of the lunar lander, would be deployed by commercial launch vehicles.

Mark Whittington, who is a contributor to The Hill and an author of several space exploration studies, stated in an article that the "lunar orbit project doesn't help us get back to the Moon".