NASA has delayed its moon missions due to safety concerns, pushing back the crewed missions to 2025 and 2026.
The Artemis mission aims to prepare for human expeditions to Mars.
There are concerns about the ambitious schedule, costs, and technical work, as well as a lack of transparency in mission costs.
In order to safely carry out our upcoming #Artemis missions to the Moon with astronauts, we are now targeting 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
“One year is not a lot of time to do that learning, turn around and be ready for a September 2026 launch date,” William Russell of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said.
“We believe that we will be on the surface of the moon before China is, and it’s our intent for that to happen,” NASA associate administrator for exploration systems development Catherine Koerner said.
“With Artemis, we’re building a capability: not just a launch capability but a capability in cislunar orbit, capability on the surface of the moon over time,” she said.
“In my judgment, the Artemis program is excessively complex, unrealistically priced, compromises crew safety, poses very high mission risk of completion, and is highly unlikely to be completed in a timely manner to be successful,” Michael Griffin said.
Key partners include SpaceX and Axiom Space.
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