NASA delays highly anticipated Artemis lunar missions, cites safety – National | 24CA News
A extremely anticipated lunar orbit and a return to the moon by people after greater than 50 years are being pushed again.
NASA introduced on Tuesday that it’ll delay the launch of the Artemis II mission that was slated for November 2024 to September 2025 to present extra time to organize, citing security.
“Safety is our top priority, and to give Artemis teams more time to work through the challenges with first-time development, operations and integration, we’re going to give more time on Artemis II and III,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson stated Tuesday.
The Artemis II mission would see 4 astronauts, together with Canadian Jeremy Hansen, go across the moon.
The announcement confirms some media experiences this week that had stated, citing nameless sources, that NASA was pushing again the Artemis II mission.
The launch of Artemis III — a two-person lunar touchdown that was deliberate for late 2025 — will now happen in September 2026, Nelson stated.
However, the Artemis IV mission stays on observe for September 2028.
Amit Kshatriya, deputy affiliate administrator for the Moon to Mars program, stated NASA got here to this determination based mostly on the Artemis I take a look at flight and from the manufacturing and meeting of parts for the next Artemis II and III missions.
“From the test flight in particular, we had … I would say one major finding that we need a little bit more time to work and that is the performance of the thermal protection system on the spacecraft and the heat shield,” Kshatriya stated.
NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free stated they’re dealing with technical challenges however the Artemis group is engaged on fixing these points.
“As we prepare to send our friends and colleagues on this mission, we’re committed to launching as safely as possible, and we will launch when we’re ready,” Free stated.
“We learned a great deal during Artemis I, and continue to learn today through the production of Artemis II, III, IV and all the hardware we have in flow and we plan to put those lessons back into our future missions.”
Hansen, of London, Ont., is among the many four-person crew chosen for the Artemis II mission and can turn into the one non-American to depart Earth’s orbit when the mission blasts off.
The Canadian authorities has pledged $1.9 billion towards the price of the Lunar Gateway area station that’s being constructed as a part of the mission, which incorporates the price of the Canadian seat on the Artemis II mission in addition to a second potential seat on a voyage to the Lunar Gateway sooner or later.
Astronauts final visited the moon in December 1972, closing out the Apollo program.
Artemis II is “the first crewed flight test on the agency’s path to establishing a long-term scientific and human presence on the lunar surface,” based on NASA.
This builds on the success of Artemis I, an unmanned flight that travelled on a 1.4-million-mile journey past the moon, returning to Earth after 25 days in December 2022.
If the Artemis II mission is profitable, it will likely be the primary time people get that near the moon for the reason that Apollo program greater than 50 years in the past.
With the Artemis missions, NASA goals to “explore more of the lunar surface than ever before” and set up “the first long-term presence on the moon.”
The finish objective is to go to Mars by the late 2030s – however that may even be delayed now.
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