A full moon is visible behind the Artemis I Space Launch System (SLS) and the Orion spacecraft, atop the mobile launch vehicle, prepares for a wet dress rehearsal to practice launch timelines and procedures, at Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. on June 14, 2022. On Tuesday, January 9, 2024, NASA said that astronauts will have to wait until 2025 before flying to the Moon and a few more years before landing there. Credit: Cory Huston/NASA via AP
Astronauts will have to wait until next year before flying to the Moon and another few years before landing there, due to the latest round of delays announced Tuesday by NASA.
The space agency had planned to send four astronauts around the Moon at the end of this year, but pushed back the flight until September 2025 due to safety and technical concerns. The first human moon landing in more than 50 years has also been postponed, from 2025 to September 2026.
“Safety is our top priority,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. The delays “will give Artemis teams more time to address challenges.”
The news came just an hour after a Pittsburgh company abandoned its own attempt to land its spacecraft on the Moon due to a mission-ending fuel leak.
Launched Monday as part of NASA’s commercial lunar program, Astrobotic Technology’s Peregrine lander was supposed to serve as a scout for astronauts. A Houston company will take a chance on its own lander next month.
NASA relies heavily on private companies for its Artemis moon landing program for astronauts, named after Apollo’s mythological twin sister.
SpaceX’s Starship mega-rocket will be needed to bring the first Artemis moonwalkers back and forth from lunar orbit to the surface. But the nearly 400-foot (121-meter) rocket has only been launched from Texas twice, each time exploding over the Gulf of Mexico.
NASA’s Orion capsule is pulled onto the well deck of the USS Portland after splashing down following a successful uncrewed Artemis I lunar mission, Sunday, Dec. 11, 2022, in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of the Baja California, Mexico. On Tuesday, January 9, 2024, NASA said that astronauts will have to wait until 2025 before flying to the Moon and a few more years before landing there. Credit: Mario Tama/Pool Photo via AP, File
The longer it takes to put Starship into orbit around Earth, first with satellites and then crews, the longer NASA will have to wait to attempt its first moon landing with astronauts since 1972. During NASA’s Apollo era , 12 astronauts have walked on the moon.
The Government Accountability Office warned in November that NASA was likely looking at 2027 for its first moon landing, citing Elon Musk’s spacecraft as one of several technical challenges. Another potential obstacle: the development of moonwalking suits by Axiom Space of Houston.
“We need them all to be ready and successful so that this very complicated mission can happen,” said Amit Kshatriya, NASA deputy associate administrator.
NASA only has one Artemis moonshot under its belt so far. During a test flight of its new moon rocket in 2022, the space agency sent an empty Orion capsule into lunar orbit and returned it to Earth. It’s the same type of capsule that astronauts will use to fly to and from the moon, connecting with Starship in lunar orbit for the journey to the surface.
The spacecraft will need to fill its fuel tank in orbit around Earth, before heading to the Moon. SpaceX is planning an on-orbit fuel depot to do this work, another key aspect of the program that has yet to be demonstrated.
Artemis II crew members, from left, Jeremy Hansen, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman and Christina Koch, stand together at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, in front of an Orion crew module, the Tuesday, August 8, 2023. Tuesday, January 8, 2023. On September 9, 2024, NASA said that astronauts will have to wait until 2025 before flying to the Moon and a few more years before landing there. Credit: Kim Shiflett/NASA via AP, file
NASA’s moon landing efforts have been repeatedly delayed over the past decade, adding billions of dollars to the cost. Government audits project the total cost of the program at $93 billion through 2025.
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