NASA announces further delays
6/12/2024 5:56
NASA Administrator Bill
Nelson announced on Thursday new delays in the U.S. space
agency's Artemis program to return astronauts to the moon for
the first time since 1972, pushing back the next two planned
missions including the lunar landing.
Nelson told a news conference that the next Artemis mission,
sending astronauts around the moon and back, has slipped to
April 2026, with the landing mission planned the following year.
The delay came after NASA concluded an examination of the Orion
crew capsule, made by Lockheed Martin, and its heat
shield, which had malfunctioned during reentry into Earth's
atmosphere during a 2022 flight.
The Artemis program was established by NASA during
President-elect Donald Trump's first administration with the
goal of returning astronauts to the moon for the first time
since the U.S. space agency's Apollo 17 mission. The program is
intended to establish a lunar base as a step toward the more
ambitious goal of human missions to Mars. The United States is
estimated to spend roughly $93 billion on the program through
2025.
The Artemis program has made noteworthy progress but also
has experienced various delays and rising costs.
In 2022, NASA carried out the Artemis I mission, a 25-day
uncrewed voyage around the moon ending when the Orion capsule
carrying a simulated crew of three mannequins made a successful
splash down in the Pacific. During its blazing atmospheric
reentry, heat became trapped inside the Orion heatshield's outer
layer, causing cracks and raising concerns after the mission
about the capsule's future models.
Nelson said he and other senior NASA officials concluded a
meeting on the heat shield this week, facing a decision on
whether to make Lockheed replace and upgrade the heat shield on
the Artemis II Orion capsule, or fly the capsule with the
existing heat shield design but change its reentry trajectory to
ensure the same heat-cracking does not recur.
The NASA chief said he and the other officials unanimously
decided to keep the heat shield as is and change Orion's return
trajectory for the next mission.
That marked the first flight of NASA's massive Space Launch
System rocket, a powerful and over-budget vehicle tasked with
launching humans to space aboard the Orion capsule. SpaceX's
Starship is contracted to land astronauts on the moon's surface.
The follow-up Artemis II mission, a flight carrying
astronauts around the moon in Orion but without a landing, has
experienced delays, including one announced by Nelson in January
pushing back its time table to September 2025. Nelson on
Thursday said it would be further delayed until April 2026.
The Artemis III mission is planned as the lunar landing.
Nelson in January said that mission was pushed back to September
2026. Nelson said this will now be in mid-2027.
NASA is using SpaceX, Lockheed Martin, Boeing and
other contractors in the Artemis program.
The trip by the Artemis astronauts to the moon is planned as
a relay among multiple spacecraft in space, initially launching
off Earth aboard Orion then transferring in space to the
Starship system to go to and from the lunar surface.
The United States and China, an ascending power in space,
are racing to land astronauts on the moon. Both nations are
courting partner countries and leaning on private companies for
their moon programs.
The Artemis program has been NASA's top priority under
Nelson. The program will lean heavily on SpaceX's Starship
rocket. Trump's first NASA chief, former U.S. congressman Jim
Bridenstine, launched the Artemis program and persuaded Congress
to increase the agency's budget to fund it. Trump has picked
billionaire businessman Jared Isaacman, an associate of SpaceX
founder Elon Musk, to succeed Nelson as NASA chief.
SpaceX is hoping for swift advances in Starship development
during the second Trump administration, whose space agenda is
expected to give the Artemis program a greater focus on the more
ambitious goal of landing people on Mars, Musk's premier space
aspiration.
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