NASA Postpones Major Moon Landing Plans Again | Science, Climate & Tech News
NASA has once again postponed its plans to send astronauts back to the moon.
The Artemis mission aims to send four astronauts on a journey around the moon and back, with a subsequent mission planned to land on the moon’s surface a year later.
Bill Nelson, the head of NASA, announced in a news conference that the next Artemis mission has been pushed to April 2026, with the anticipated astronaut landing mission, Artemis III, scheduled for the following year.
This flight was already delayed and was initially set to launch in September 2025.
Now, astronauts will not orbit the moon until 2026 and will not land until 2027 aboard one of Elon Musk’s new Starship spacecraft.
“Provided the SpaceX lander is ready, we plan to launch Artemis III in mid-2027,” Mr. Nelson stated.
“This will ensure we are well ahead of the Chinese government’s declared plan” to land on the lunar surface by 2030, he added.
The nine candidate landing regions on the moon for NASA’s Artemis III mission. Pic: NASA
The recent delays follow NASA’s review of the Orion crew capsule and its heat shield.
The heat shield suffered cracks and partial erosion during re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere during its debut 2022 uncrewed test flight, Artemis I.
Read more: The space race for the moon’s water
The Artemis programme was initiated during Donald Trump’s presidency and aims to return astronauts to the moon for the first time since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
In contrast to Apollo, the Artemis programme plans not only to land astronauts but also to establish lunar bases that will assist in future missions to Mars.
In October, the space agency revealed it had identified nine potential landing sites for the mission, all situated near the moon’s south pole.
When Artemis III lands on the moon in 2027, it will mark the historic occasion of the first woman and a black astronaut stepping onto the lunar surface.
