Washington, Jan 7 (IANS): The US space agency will discuss next week an update on the agency's lunar exploration plans for the benefit of all under the Artemis Moon mission.

The briefing will be chaired by NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, along with senior space agency participants.

The US will land an international astronaut on the Moon aboard NASA's Artemis mission by the end of the decade, said Vice President Kamala Harris during a meeting of the White House's National Space Council in Washington, DC, last month.

NASA's Artemis III mission which aims to return astronauts to the moon for the first time since 1972, may not launch in 2025 earlier planned, but in 2027, according to a recent report by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO).

NASA aims to return humans to the moon to maintain US leadership in space exploration and prepare for future missions to Mars by 2025.

In the time since NASA’s successful flight test of the Artemis I mission, the agency has continued to learn from that flight and prepare for Artemis II, the first crewed mission around the Moon under Artemis.

NASA said in a statement that it has made significant progress toward Artemis III, which is planned to land the first astronauts near the lunar South Pole; Artemis IV, which is planned to be the first mission to incorporate the Gateway lunar space station; and future Artemis missions.

Through Artemis, the agency will establish a long-term presence at the Moon for scientific exploration with our commercial and international partners, learn how to live and work away from home, and prepare for future human exploration of the Red Planet.

The SLS (Space Launch System), exploration ground systems, and NASA’s Orion spacecraft, along with the human landing system, next-generation spacesuits, the lunar space station, Gateway, and future rovers are NASA’s foundation for deep space exploration, said the space agency.