NASA has finally shared details of nine possible regions it could use as Artemis III landing zones on the Moon. The Artemis III mission is one of the most exciting and anticipated space missions of the next decade, and so far NASA has been very tight-lipped about where it plans to send astronauts.

Even though we don’t expect Artemis III to be launched soon: the last Delay of Artemis II This likely means we’ll have to wait even longer for the third mission – many have been eagerly awaiting more details from NASA. The space agency finally relented and shared details on nine regions where it could land its next lunar lander.

Artemis III’s nine possible landing zones are located near the lunar South Pole, which astronomers believe could hold exciting secrets like moon beads containing crystallized water. This new list of possible candidates has been further refined from NASA’s initial list and includes, in no specific order, the following areas:

• Peak near Cabeus B
• Haworth
• Malapert massif
• Mons Mouton plateau
• Mons Mouton
• Noble rim 1
• Nobile Rim 2
• by Gerlache Jante 2
• Slater Plain

It remains to be seen whether NASA will decide on a specific region soon. With the recent success of SpaceX at catching Starship on its fifth testArtemis missions don’t seem as out of reach as they did just a few months ago, when SpaceX could barely stop Starship from exploding during its first test flights.

Even though NASA doesn’t plan to use Starship for every leg of the journey, SpaceX will play a critical role in putting humanity back on the Moon for the first time since the 1970s. NASA also says that when selecting these possible landing zones for Artemis III, the team evaluated the capabilities of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket, Orion capsule, and Starship HLS (Human Landing System) to ensure they will work with each region.