A lunar sortie (or lunar sortie mission) is a human spaceflight mission to the Moon. In contrast with lunar outpost missions, lunar sorties will be of relatively brief duration.

Planned NASA sorties

On 2006-12-04, NASA announced a "Global Exploration Strategy" and lunar architecture that would implement the Vision for Space Exploration. The planned lunar missions would begin with four-person crews making several seven-day sortie missions to the moon until the power supplies, rovers and living quarters of an outpost are operational.

The first lunar sortie planned by NASA as part of Project Constellation may be Orion 13, although this mission will be a fly-by rather than a landing, and may not include a crew. The second Constellation lunar sortie mission will be Orion 15, during which a crew will land on the lunar surface in what NASA calls the "Human Lunar Return" mission.

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