The problems are piling up for NASA, and the American space agency is forced to postpone the next lunar missions. Bad news which brings Artemis II and Artemis III to 2026 and 2027.
No orbit around the Moon with Artemis II next year
Bill Nelson, outgoing NASA administrator, shared this Thursday, December 5, 2024 that the Artemis II mission had been postponed to April 2026. This manned flight composed of four astronauts, aimed at testing the systems of the Orion spacecraft by circling around the Moon, was initially planned for September 2025.
For its part, Artemis III was postponed from 2026 to mid-2027. This mission aimed to bring four astronauts to the surface of the Moon, including a first woman and a first person of color.
“This is just the latest in a long line of delays for NASA's Artemis lunar program, which was established during the first administration of President-elect Donald Trump, and shows once again that the agency faces considerable headwinds,” reports Futurism.
The media also speaks of a somewhat anti-climatic development, when we know that Bill Nelson will be replaced by a millionaire specializing in space tourism, Jared Isaacman, under the new Trump administration.
The latest information around Artemis
The latest news was that NASA had succeeded in sending the Orion capsule around the Moon in 2022 with the first Artemis mission. “However, its return left significant scars in its heat shield, triggering a lengthy investigation,” explains Futurism.
-The second mission will also have the difficulty of involving a crew on board, as well as the use of a more than expensive rocket, the Space Launch System, which is not in its first stages of development difficulties.
When announcing the postponement of the next missions, Bill Nelson specified that the problems surrounding the heat shield are indeed one of the causes of the multiple delays on the deadlines for Artemis II.
To respond to this problem, we now learn that the latter will not evolve, but that the trajectory has been modified to ensure that it will not crack under the effect of excessive heat during re-entry into the 'atmosphere. This is also a unanimous decision among NASA officials.
It remains to be seen whether development will continue properly. Rumors in the corridors also suggested that NASA could abandon the Space Launch System rocket to turn to a solution still in development at SpaceX: Starship.
