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NASA’s Space Launch System rocket carrying the Orion spacecraft is on launch pad 39B during final preparations for Artemis I to launch from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, in November 2022. It is being photographed.
CNN
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NASA leadership is expected to announce on Tuesday a “several month delay” to the first crewed mission of the agency’s flagship Artemis program, according to one current and one former NASA employee.
The delay impacts NASA’s Artemis II mission, which aims to send four astronauts on a lunar journey and was scheduled to launch in November of this year.
But the mission is no longer expected to take place until 2025, officials said, confirming months of speculation that a delay was imminent.
In a November report, NASA’s inspector general cited three major challenges the space agency must address before safely flying humans to the moon, suggesting the mission could be delayed.
First, the ground structures used to build, transport, and launch the program’s giant Space Launch System rocket (called Mobile Launcher 1) “suffered more damage than expected.”
A November report said repairs to the structure were underway.
Second, the Orion spacecraft’s heat shield, which was intended to house the astronauts on Artemis II, was exposed to temperatures about half that of the sun’s surface during Artemis I’s atmospheric reentry, resulting in “unexpected formations.” was eroded. Earth’s atmosphere.
Finally, the inspector general focused on what NASA officials consider the “key critical path” of the Artemis II mission: the European Service Module that will prepare Orion for its first crew and provide power and propulsion. He pointed out that it is important to integrate. In project planning, the “critical path” refers to the aspect of the mission that is expected to take the most time.
The Artemis II mission was to build on the successful Artemis I mission, an unmanned test flight that sent NASA’s Orion capsule on a 1.4 million-mile voyage around the moon. That journey ended in December 2022 for him.
The Artemis II mission will be the first human mission to orbit the Moon since the end of the Apollo program. crew, announced in Aprilincludes NASA’s Reed Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
The journey is expected to last about 10 days and could send the crew beyond the moon and into the furthest reaches of space that humans have ever traveled, although the exact distance has yet to be determined. do not have.
Artemis II is expected to pave the way for the Artemis III mission later this decade, which NASA vows will bring the first women and people of color to the moon. It will also be the first time humans have landed on the moon since the Apollo program ended in 1972.
NASA’s goal is to Release date in 2025 As for Artemis III, the space agency’s inspector general has already said the mission will likely be postponed due to delays. After 2026.