America is once again falling behind in the race to put a man on the moon. NASA postponed the launch date again, this time citing serious safety concerns.
NASA delayed the mission announcement Last week, it cited unresolved issues including batteries, heat shields, and circuitry responsible for ventilation and temperature control.
Artemis II, the first manned mission around the moon, has been postponed to September 2025. Artemis III, the first moon landing mission since 1972, has been postponed to September 2026. Artemis II was originally scheduled for November of this year, while Artemis III was originally scheduled for December 2025.
The Artemis IV mission, which will land astronauts at the Gateway Lunar Space Station, is on track to land in 2028, NASA said. Artemis I, an unmanned test flight, was originally scheduled to launch in November 2018, but was not launched until November 2022.
To carry out future activities safely #Artemis Astronaut missions to the moon are targeted for September 2025 for Artemis II and September 2026 for Artemis III.
Safety is our top priority. https://t.co/AjNjLo4U6E pic.twitter.com/VE74OtlUr6
— NASA (@NASA) January 9, 2024
The Artemis mission series has the ultimate goal of preparing for a human expedition to Mars.
NASA officials provided an explanation for the delay. testimony It will be submitted to the House Science and Space Subcommittee on Wednesday.
The subcommittee reiterated the nation’s goal of landing a crewed crew within 10 years and emphasized the importance of outperforming other nations in landing the first crew on the moon. The first country to land on the moon would establish priority for conducting and enabling future lunar activities. Lawmakers specifically blamed China.
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William Russell of the Government Audit Office (GAO) expressed concern that NASA is predicting the launch of Artemis III within a year after Artemis II.
“A year is not a long time to learn that and pivot and prepare for a launch in September 2026,” Russell said.
Katherine Kellner, NASA’s associate administrator for exploration systems development, defended the timeline. Kellner said the United States remains in the lead in the race to the moon.
“We believe we will reach the moon before China, and that is our intention,” Kellner said.
Kellner said Artemis III’s vehicle processing would be advanced enough by Artemis II’s launch date to make it possible. Kellner noted that NASA’s 11 industry partners have signed on to the coordinated launch date.
“With Artemis, we are building not only launch capabilities, but capabilities in lunar orbit and, in the long term, on the lunar surface,” Kellner said.
Michael Griffin, former Pentagon undersecretary of defense for research and technology and former NASA administrator, said Artemis would need to be fully restarted and that the executive branch would need congressional direction on how to continue. . Griffin said Artemis II was on a realistic schedule, but Artemis III was not.
“In my judgment, the Artemis program is overly complex, unrealistically priced, jeopardizes crew safety, poses too high a risk to mission completion, and is very unlikely to be completed in a timely manner and successfully.” ,” Griffin said.
In addition to Wednesday’s testimony, GAO said: issued Report on NASA’s delays and major challenges remaining.
GAO stated: foresaw NASA announced the postponement in November. They reported that NASA is planning an ambitious schedule, with delays in key events and a significant amount of technical work remaining.
GAO also noted the lack of transparency in mission costs. NASA has yet to provide an official cost for Artemis III, despite asking for $6.8 billion in its fiscal year 2024 budget request. The total request for future Artemis missions is at least $38 billion over the next five years. GAO first reported the lack of financial transparency in 2019, when it found that NASA had no plans to establish formal cost estimates for Artemis III.
Key partners for the Artemis mission include SpaceX. SpaceX is a company founded and led by CEO Elon Musk that develops human landing systems. And Axiom Space is developing more advanced spacesuits.
add @SpaceX crew arm @NASA Astronaut on launch pad 40 pic.twitter.com/rQeQiBdE79
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 7, 2023