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NASAhas announced further delays to itsArtemis program , which promises to return cosmonaut tothe moonfor the first time since 1972 .
The Artemis 2 mission , originally slat to launch astronauts around the lunar month and back in September 2025 , has been crowd back to April 2026 . And the follow - up , Artemis 3 , once targeted for later 2026 , will be moved to mid 2027 , NASA AdministratorBill Nelsonsaid at a newsworthiness conference on Thursday ( Dec. 5 ) .
The Space Launch System blasts off from its Florida launchpad.
This stand for that Artemis 2 will establish around 17 months after it was initially scheduled . NASA says the delay is due to the Orion capsule — which sits atop the 30 - tale Space Launch System ( SLS ) — need additional prep time before it can safely carry a human crew .
" We and our diligence and external married person need this meter to make indisputable that our own abridgment is ready to safely deliver our astronauts to mystifying space and back to Earth , " Nelson said . " We do not wing until we are confident that we have made the flight as good as potential for the human being on board . We need to do this next test flight of steps , and we postulate to do it right . "
The SLS is the big NASA rocket since the Apollo program ’s Saturn Little Phoebe roquette . It has a fluid H and oxygen core promoter with two small skyrocket booster unit tie to its sides .
link : NASA herald Artemis spaceman who will pilot to the moon for the 1st time in 50 years
For the Artemis 1 flight in November , 2022 , the rocket sent the Orion abridgment on a six - day , 69 naut mi - high ( 111 kilometers ) flyby of the Sun Myung Moon ’s surface , enabling NASA engineer to gather vital data on the faculty ’s trajectory and the effects of lowgravityon three humanoid mannequins that were on board .
Then , upon its dramatic return through Earth ’s aura at 32 times the speed of sound , the capsule ’s heat shell was put to the examination . The utmost air clash and its parachute slowed the ballistic capsule to just 20 miles per hour ( 32.2 km / h ) , after which it plunk down down off the coast of Baja California , Mexico , in the Pacific Ocean .
After examine the Orion capsule , NASA engineer get a line that the Lockheed Martin - manufactured spacecraft ’s warmth shield had been collapse and part eroded as it bounced off the atmosphereduring the space capsule ’s reentry .
" While the space capsule was dipping in and out of the atmosphere as part of that contrive skip entry , heating system pile up inside the warmth shield out stratum , lead to gases organize and becoming trapped inside the heating plant shield,“Pam Melroy , NASA ’s Deputy Administrator , said at the news league . " This caused internal pressure to build up up and led to crack and spotty desquamation of that outer layer . "
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— NASA ’s new moon roquette pick out from space undulate to the launch pad ( picture )
NASA wo n’t exchange this warmth buckler for the Artemis 2 mission , but other technical issues with the craft — include its shelling and aliveness backing systems — prompted the space agency to call for a six - month delay .
Despite these problem , Nelson insisted that the mission will set in motion in prison term to beatChinain the race to send a crew military mission to the moon . China has recently landed rover on the moon and Mars and completed building of itsTiangong space stationin 2022 . The country is also chair mental synthesis exertion of an International Lunar Research Station , which is slat for windup by 2030 .
" Assuming theSpaceXlander is quick , we be after to launch Artemis III in mid-2027 , " Nelson said . " That will be well ahead of the Formosan government ’s announced intent to land on the lunar surface by 2030 . "
