SPACE — The American Space Agency (NASA) postponed the Artemis II and III programs. The Artemis program aims to put astronauts on the moon this decade.
The Artemis III mission, which is planned to achieve an important milestone by landing humans on the moon, will be postponed until at least September 2026. Previously, this trip was scheduled for 2025.
The delay was caused by several main factors. Several factors include the development of Starship and space suits which have experienced setbacks.
Starship is a giant rocket and spacecraft system that is expected to carry astronauts from lunar orbit to the moon’s south pole. Starship was developed by the SpaceX company.
Two Starship test flights in 2023 ended in failure and explosion.
SpaceX now faces a long journey to develop their lunar lander. In fact, once Starship successfully reaches Earth’s orbit, the company will have to solve the challenge of ensuring the vehicle has enough fuel to travel to the moon.
The challenge is expected to involve at least 10 refueling flights. “We have to be realistic,” said NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free in a press conference, as reported by Space.
Jensen stated that SpaceX may be ready and get the necessary regulatory approvals for a third Starship test flight in February.
NASA officials added that they also expect delays in the development of the spacesuits that astronauts will wear while on the lunar surface. Both SpaceX’s Starship development and spacesuits are factors that have been identified as potential causes of delays for the Artemis III mission.
Apart from that, as reported CNN, NASA’s Artemis II mission aimed at carrying a crew of four on a flight past the moon will also be pushed back. The Artemis II mission will not reach its initial planned launch date in November this year. NASA announced that the new target date for Artemis II is September 2025.
The delay is partly related to problems with the Orion crew capsule that will house astronauts during the mission. NASA previously revealed that the Orion spacecraft’s heat shield suffered unexpected damage during the uncrewed Artemis I mission in 2022.
2024-01-10 02:56:00
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