The Summary
- NASA’s next Artemis mission, which will send four astronauts around the moon, is delayed until 2026, the agency announced.
- The delay also pushes back the expected timeline of a subsequent Artemis mission to land astronauts on the lunar surface.
- NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said that under the new timeline, the U.S. will still be on track to put astronauts on the moon before China does.
In a program that is already years behind schedule and billions over budget, NASA announced Thursday that the next Artemis mission, which would send four humans on a journey around the moon, will be postponed until 2026.
NASA said in January that the Artemis II mission would launch in September 2025 rather than late 2024. The space agency now claims that in order to give itself more time to fix problems with its next-generation Orion space capsule, it is aiming for a launch in April 2026. The issues were discovered during the 2022 uncrewed Artemis test mission.
The Artemis III mission, which intends to land humans close to the moon’s south pole, is also being delayed; it was originally scheduled to launch in September 2026 but is now scheduled for mid-2027.
The revised timeframe, according to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, should still allow the US to send astronauts back to the moon before China does the same.
The mid-2027 target, according to Nelson, will be far ahead of the Chinese government’s declared plan to send Chinese astronauts to the moon by 2030.
A sort of new space race has been sparked by China’s interest in lunar exploration, and some American officials and experts are growing more worried that if China arrives on the moon before the United States, there may be competition for resources in space, such as valuable water ice that is believed to be trapped in permanently shadowed craters at the lunar south pole. The idea is that water on the moon may be converted into rocket fuel to let spacecraft travel farther.
According to Nelson, it is imperative that we arrive on the south pole in order to prevent giving the Chinese access to areas of the lunar south pole.
NASA officials found defects in the Orion spacecraft’s heat shield during the uncrewed flight of the capsule, which led them to conclude that the Artemis missions needed to be postponed. For example, they observed that the heat shield was deteriorated in certain areas and that the outer layer cracked and shed due to an accumulation of internal pressure, said NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy.
The spacecraft and any prospective humans on board are shielded from the intense heat of reentering the Earth’s atmosphere by Orion’s heat shield, which covers the bottom of the capsule.
According to extensive testing, the Orion capsule’s unique return to Earth most certainly caused the heat shield to deteriorate. In order to dissipate energy and slow down, the spaceship was built to perform a maneuver called a skip entry, which entails dipping in and out of the atmosphere.
However, Melroy said that this re-entry technique led to heat accumulation inside the heat shield’s outer layer, which eventually caused it to wear away and shatter in some places.
The next two Artemis flights will be postponed to let engineers to fix the heat shield problems and get ready for what Nelson stated would be a changed entry trajectory.
When we make decisions, our astronauts’ safety comes first. According to Nelson, it is our North Star. Until we are certain that we have made the airplane as safe as possible for the people on board, we do not take off.
Parts of the Artemis program may be redesigned or even abandoned, according to some space industry experts, as Donald Trump’s incoming administration prepares to take office in January.
However, Melroy stated that the choice to proceed with the Artemis program was rather obvious and shouldn’t be delayed until the future administration decides on its objectives and aims.
We definitely want to postpone any decisions about the beginning or termination of programs as much as possible, Melroy stated. We didn’t have a chance to brief everyone because we haven’t received the transition team yet and important choices need to wait for a new team.
The building of NASA’s new Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System mega-rocket, which will return humans to the moon, has cost the agency more than $42 billion over more than ten years. Before eventually traveling to Mars, NASA plans to conduct routine missions to set up a base camp on the moon as part of the program.
Note: Every piece of content is rigorously reviewed by our team of experienced writers and editors to ensure its accuracy. Our writers use credible sources and adhere to strict fact-checking protocols to verify all claims and data before publication. If an error is identified, we promptly correct it and strive for transparency in all updates, feel free to reach out to us via email. We appreciate your trust and support!