WASHINGTON, October 24 (HS/RIA Novosti) - The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has confirmed its intention to land astronauts on the lunar surface in 2028 as part of the Artemis IV mission.

According to NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, the US space agency is speeding up work and revising technical requirements to meet the planned schedule.

That is how we give Artemis IV the greatest possible chance of safely and successfully returning Americans to the lunar surface in 2028... And when American astronauts take those first steps on the Moon in 2028, the rover and the first elements of a permanent human presence will be waiting for them, Isaacman told reporters.

NASA's Artemis program manager Jeremy Parsons said the development of lunar landing modules is being carried out in parallel by two private contractors — Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin.

Within our Artemis team, we have been laser focused on driving progress, really to get to our boots on the [Moon] 2028 timeline... NASA is going to wait as long as possible to make the call on who is taking that crew down, but both of our providers are driving toward landings in 2028, Parsons said.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Indrani Sarkar