According to one current employee and one former employee, NASA leadership is anticipated to announce on Tuesday that the first crewed flight of the agency’s flagship Artemis program will be delayed by “months.” NASA’s Artemis II project, which was supposed to launch in November and intends to send four astronauts on a trip to fly around the moon, is impacted by the delay. However, the sources state that the mission is no longer anticipated to be completed before 2025, validating months of rumors that a delay was likely. In a November study, NASA’s Inspector General made hints about possible mission delays, listing three key issues that the space agency has to resolve before it can safely send people to the moon. The foundation utilized for construction and transportation
Artemis goals
The Artemis II mission was slated to build upon the successful completion of the Artemis I mission, an uncrewed test flight that sent NASA’s Orion capsule on a 1.4 million-mile voyage to lap the moon. That journey concluded in December 2022.
The Artemis II mission is set to be the first time humans will orbit the moon since the end of the Apollo program. The crew, announced in April, includes NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, as well as Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
The journey is expected to last about 10 days and will send the crew out beyond the moon, potentially farther into space than any human has ever traveled, though the exact distance is yet to be determined.
Artemis II is expected to pave the way for the Artemis III mission later this decade, which NASA has vowed will put a woman and person of color on the lunar surface for the first time. It will also mark the first time humans have touched down on the moon since the Apollo program ended in 1972.
NASA has been targeting a 2025 launch date for Artemis III, though the space agency’s inspector general has already said delays will likely push the mission to 2026 or later.
