by NASA’s first crewed Artemis mission, flight to launch four astronauts trip around the moon and back, has been delayed by nearly a year, from late 2024 to at least September 2025, NASA announced Tuesday. Likewise, the first astronaut moon landing is slipping from late 2025 to September 2026.
“As we remind everyone at every turn, safety is our number one priority,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told reporters during an afternoon teleconference. “To give Artemis teams more time to work through the challenges of first-time developments and integrations, we’re going to give (them) more time on Artemis 2 and 3.
“We are adjusting our schedule to focus on Artemis 2 for September 2025 and September 2026 for Artemis 3, which will send people for the first time to the moon’s south pole. Artemis 4 remains on track for September 2028, and while there are clearly challenges ahead, our teams are making incredible progress.”
Rumors of delays had been circulating for months, and the Government Accountability Office reported late last year that delays were a virtual certainty. But the dates announced on Tuesday pushed the flights back further than many expected.
A plan to send astronauts to the moon
NASA launched the Artemis programs first test flight, Artemis 1in November 2022, using the agency’s powerful Space Launch System heavy lift rocket to launch an unmanned Orion crew capsule on a flight around the moon and back.
NASA planned to launch the Artemis 2 mission later this year to carry a one-man crew of three on Orion’s first pilot flight, a shakedown mission to test the spacecraft’s life support, propulsion and other systems in previous Earth orbit. . pushing on for a deep space loop around the moon and back.
But mission managers chose to delay the launch to give engineers more time to fix a problem with the Orion capsule’s protective heat shield found after the Artemis 1 re-entry. They must also correct recently discovered problems with critical batteries found while testing units intended for the Artemis 3 Orion.
The heat shield is designed to ablate, or burn off, during re-entry heating as it returns from the moon at speeds in excess of 25,000 mph. During Artemis 1’s re-entry, more charred material separated from the heat shield than predicted by computer models.
Although the unexpected “freedom” had no effect on the spacecraft – NASA said astronauts would not even notice it was on board – engineers want to make sure they understand the underlying cause so that updated computer models can correct effects accurately predict re-entry. over multiple pathways.
Amit Kshatriya, deputy administrator of NASA’s Moon to Mars Program, said engineers are getting closer to the root cause of the unexpected behavior. The launch delay was mainly caused by the battery issue and the disassembly required to access and replace them among the many complex subsystems.
“The Artemis 2 crew are the first people to set human eyes on the far side of the moon (since Apollo), and I can’t imagine all the pictures and recordings they will bring back to capture those moments, but also. to guide our understanding of the moon,” said NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free,
“The crew is a constant reminder to us of how important it is to stay focused on the work we must do to ensure their safe return.”
Building SpaceX Lunar Lander Starship
As for the Artemis 3 lunar landing flight, the late 2026 target assumes that SpaceX’s Starship lunar lander – a vehicle not yet operated in space – will complete multiple test flights in Earth orbit, along with at least one lunar landing demonstration in 2025. .
The Human Landing System, or HLS, is a version of the Starship upper stage being built by SpaceX that will launch atop the company’s Super Heavy booster.
The HLS, which is being built under a $2.9 billion NASA contract to be awarded in 2021, will use cryogenic methane and liquid oxygen propellants that are just going into low-Earth orbit. To make it to the moon, the rocket must be robotically refueled.
Jessica Jensen, SpaceX’s vice president of customer operations and integration, said 10 Super Heavy-Starship “tanker” flights will be needed to carry the propellants needed to refuel the HLS.
“It will be about 10-ish,” she said. “That’s my rough guess right now. But it could be lower depending on how well the first flight tests go or it could be a little bit higher.”
The ultracold, continuously boiling propellants must first be transferred, one flight at a time, to some sort of storage vehicle. Once sufficient propellant is available, the HLS will launch, refuel from the depot and then take off from the moon where it will await the arrival of the Orion crew.
SpaceX’s first two Super Heavy-Starship test flights last year but partially successful and no upper stage Starship made it all the way to the planned sub-orbital trajectory. Jensen said a third test flight is planned for February, pending FAA approval, and drive transfer test flights will begin later this year.
“Staff safety is paramount”
Under the revised Artemis 3 schedule, an unmanned HLS test flight to the lunar surface and back is planned for sometime in 2025.
“Team safety is paramount,” Jensen said. “So we want to make sure we do as many flight tests as we can just on the Starship vehicle in general, but also the unmanned landing to the moon with Starship before Artemis 3.”
Under the Artemis programme, NASA plans to establish a permanent presence on the moon, sending astronauts on a regular basis to the South Polar region where scientists say ice deposits may be present in permanently shadowed craters .
If such deposits are confirmed, solar or nuclear power could be used to break the ice down into hydrogen and oxygen, providing air, water and rocket fuel for future deep space explorers. Ice deposits could greatly reduce the cost of such missions compared to sending resources from Earth.
China has similar plans to explore the moon’s south pole, saying its first piloted landing mission is planned for 2030. Asked if he was concerned that China might win the latest space race, Nelson said ” I’m not really worried about China landing in front of us.”
“I think China has a very aggressive plan,” he said. “I think they would like to land in front of us because that could give them a PR coup. But the truth is I don’t think they will.”
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