NASA’s first crewed Artemis mission, a flight to ship four astronauts on a trip around the moon and back, will be postponed for almost a year, from the end of 2024 until at least September 2025, NASA announced on Tuesday. Likewise, the first astronaut landing on the moon will be pushed back from late 2025 to September 2026.
“As we remind everyone at every turn, safety is our top priority,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told reporters during an afternoon conference call. “To give Artemis teams more time to meet the challenges with new developments and integration, we are going to give (them) more time on Artemis 2 and 3.
“We are adjusting our schedule to target Artemis 2 for September 2025 and September 2026 for Artemis 3, which will send humans to Earth for the first time. south pole of the moon. 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, as well as at the Government Accountability Office reported at the end of last year that delays were almost certain. But the dates announced Tuesday pushed flights back further than many expected.
Plan to send astronauts to the moon
NASA launched the Artemis program first test flight, Artemis 1in November 2022, using the agency’s powerful Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket to send an unmanned Orion crew capsule on a flight around the moon and back.
NASA planned to launch the Artemis 2 mission late this year to take a three-person, one-woman crew on the first piloted Orion flight, a shakedown mission to test the planet’s life support, propulsion and other systems spacecraft in orbit around Earth to test. pushing forward for a deep space loop around the moon and back.
But mission managers opted to delay the launch to give engineers more time to fix a problem with the Orion capsule’s protective heat shield, which was found after the explosion. Artemis 1 re-entry. They must also correct recently discovered issues with critical batteries found during testing of units intended for the Artemis 3 Orion.
The heat shield is designed to ablate or char during reentry when returning from the moon at speeds exceeding 40,000 km per hour. During Artemis 1’s return, more charred material separated from the heat shield than computer models had predicted.
Although the unexpected “liberation” had no impact on the spacecraft — NASA said astronauts wouldn’t have even noticed if anyone had been on board — engineers want to be sure they understand the underlying cause so that updated computer models can accurately predict the reentry effects can predict. over several routes.
Amit Kshatriya, deputy administrator of NASA’s Moon to Mars program, said engineers are closing in on the cause of the unexpected behavior. The launch delay was mainly caused by the battery problem and the disassembly required to access and replace the batteries amid a multitude of complex subsystems.
“That Artemis 2 crew will be the first people to put human eyes on the far side of the moon (since Apollo), and I can’t imagine all the photos and footage they’ll take with them to capture those moments, but also to advance our understanding of the moon,” said NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free.
“The crew continually reminds us of the importance of staying focused on the work we need to do to ensure their safe return.”
SpaceX is building a Starship lunar lander
As for the Artemis 3 moon landing flight, the late 2026 target assumes that SpaceX’s Starship lunar lander – a vehicle that has not yet been used in space – successfully completes multiple test flights in orbit, along with at least at least one unmanned moon landing demonstration by 2025. .
The Human Landing System, or HLS, is a variant of the spaceship SpaceX is building that will launch atop the company’s massive Super Heavy booster.
The HLS, being built under a $2.9 billion NASA contract awarded in 2021, will use up all the cryogenic methane and liquid oxygen propellant just entering low Earth orbit. To reach 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 deliver the propellants needed to refuel the HLS.
“There will be about 10 of them,” she said. “That would be my rough estimate at this point. But it could be lower depending on how well the first test flights go, or it could be a little higher.”
The ultra-cold propellants, which are constantly boiling away, must first be transferred, flight by flight, to some kind of storage vehicle. When sufficient propellant is available, the HLS will be launched, refueled from the depot and then depart for the moon, where it will await the arrival of an Orion crew.
SpaceX’s first two Super Heavy-Starship test flights last year were only partially successful and neither upper stage Starship has reached its planned sub-orbital trajectory. Jensen said a third test flight is planned for February, pending FAA approval, followed by the start of propellant transfer test flights later this year.
‘Safety of the crew comes first’
Under the revised Artemis 3 schedule, an unmanned HLS test flight to the lunar surface and back is planned for sometime in 2025.
“The safety of the crew is of the utmost importance,” Jensen said. “So we want to make sure that we do as many flight tests as possible, just on the Starship vehicle in general, but also the unmanned landing to the moon with Starship before Artemis 3.”
Under the Artemis program, NASA plans to establish a sustainable presence on the moon, regularly sending astronauts to the Antarctic region, where scientists say icy deposits may be present in permanently shadowed craters.
If such deposits are confirmed, solar or nuclear energy could be used to break down the ice into hydrogen and oxygen, providing air, water and rocket fuel to future space explorers. Ice deposits could vastly reduce the costs of such missions compared to launching the resources from Earth.
China has similar plans to explore the moon’s south pole and says the first pilot landing mission is planned for 2030. Asked if he is concerned that China could win the latest space race, Nelson said: “I’m concerned really no worries about China landing.” for us.”
“I think China has a very aggressive plan,” he said. “I think they would like to land before us because that could give them a PR coup. But the fact is, I don’t think they will.”
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