NASA delays Artemis mission timeline

NASA has adjusted the Artemis timeline, delaying getting Americans back to the moon.

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The Artemis II mission was supposed to launch from Florida’s Space Coast in November, WFTV reported. It will now be pushed back almost a year until September 2025.

Artemis II is the first crewed mission around the moon and will be followed by Artemis III which will be the first lunar landing since 1972′s Apollo 17 is now scheduled for September 2026.

Artemis III will land the first woman and first person of color on the moon’s surface, near the lunar South Pole, NASA said.

“We are returning to the Moon in a way we never have before, and the safety of our astronauts is NASA’s top priority as we prepare for future Artemis missions,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a news release. “We’ve learned a lot since Artemis I, and the success of these early missions relies on our commercial and international partnerships to further our reach and understanding of humanity’s place in our solar system. Artemis represents what we can accomplish as a nation – and as a global coalition. When we set our sights on what is hard, together, we can achieve what is great.”

NASA cited ensuring crew safety as the reason for the delay. The first launch of the Orion spacecraft will test environmental control and life support and tests leading up to the launch found issues that need time to resolve, including a battery issue and a problem with a circuitry component used on the air ventilation and temperature control systems.

There is also an ongoing investigation into an issue with the spacecraft’s heat shield which had an “unexpected loss of char layer pieces.”

“We are letting the hardware talk to us so that crew safety drives our decision-making. We will use the Artemis II flight test, and each flight that follows, to reduce risk for future Moon missions,” Catherine Koerner, associate administrator, Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said in a news release. “We are resolving challenges associated with first-time capabilities and operations, and we are closer than ever to establishing sustained exploration of Earth’s nearest neighbor under Artemis.”

Artemis IV is scheduled for 2028 and will be the first mission to the Gateway lunar space station. The launch of the first integrated elements for the Gateway had been planned for October 2025 and that plan is currently under review to “better align that launch with the Artemis IV mission.”

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Artemis I launch CAPE CANAVERAL, FL - NOVEMBER 15: Ground fog covers the Kennedy Space Center Press Site as a photographer lines up his shot toward the Artemis 1 moon rocket and the Orion spacecraft poised on Launch Pad 39B November 15, 2022, as the countdown for the third launch attempt continues at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. NASA's Artemis 1 mission is the first test of the agency's deep space exploration systems sending the unmanned Orion spacecraft to orbit the moon several times and return back to earth. (Photo by Red Huber/Getty Images) (Red Huber/Getty Images)

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