Nasa announces further delays Artemis moon missions

An artist’s impression of the Gateway space station hosting the Orion spacecraft and SpaceX’s deep space logistics spacecraft in a polar orbit around the Moon during the Artemis IV mission. (Nasa pic)

WASHINGTON: Nasa administrator Bill Nelson announced on Thursday new delays in the US space agency’s Artemis programme to return astronauts to the Moon for the first time since 1972, pushing back the next two planned missions including the lunar landing.

Nelson told a news conference that the next Artemis mission, sending astronauts around the moon and back, has slipped to April 2026, with the landing mission planned the following year. The delay came after Nasa concluded an examination of the Orion crew capsule, made by Lockheed Martin, and its heat shield, which had malfunctioned during re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere during a 2022 flight.

The Artemis programme was established by Nasa during President-elect Donald Trump’s first administration with the goal of returning astronauts to the Moon for the first time since the US space agency’s Apollo 17 mission. The programme is intended to establish a lunar base as a step toward the more ambitious goal of human missions to Mars. The US is estimated to spend roughly US$93 billion on the program through 2025.

The Artemis programme has made noteworthy progress but also has experienced various delays and rising costs.

In 2022, Nasa carried out the Artemis I mission, a 25-day uncrewed voyage around the Moon ending when the Orion capsule carrying a simulated crew of three mannequins made a successful splash down in the Pacific. During its blazing atmospheric re-entry, heat became trapped inside the Orion heatshield’s outer layer, causing cracks and raising concerns after the mission about the capsule’s future models.

Nelson said he and other senior Nasa officials concluded a meeting on the heat shield this week, facing a decision on whether to make Lockheed Martin replace and upgrade the heat shield on the Artemis II Orion capsule, or fly the capsule with the existing heat shield design but change its re-entry trajectory to ensure the same heat-cracking does not recur.

T he Nasa chief said he and the other officials unanimously decided to keep the heat shield as is and change Orion’s return trajectory for the next mission.

That marked the first flight of Nasa’s massive Space Launch System rocket, a powerful and over-budget vehicle tasked with launching humans to space aboard the Orion capsule. SpaceX’s Starship is contracted to land astronauts on the Moon’s surface.

The follow-up Artemis II mission, a flight carrying astronauts around the moon in Orion but without a landing, has experienced delays, including one announced by Nelson in January pushing back its timetable to September 2025. Nelson on Thursday said it would be further delayed until April 2026.

The Artemis III mission is planned as the lunar landing. Nelson in January said that mission was pushed back to September 2026. Nelson said this will now be in mid-2027.

Nasa is using SpaceX, Lockheed Martin, Boeing and other contractors in the Artemis programme.

The trip by the Artemis astronauts to the Moon is planned as a relay among multiple spacecraft in space, initially launching off Earth aboard Orion then transferring in space to the Starship system to go to and from the lunar surface.

The US and China, an ascending power in space, are racing to land astronauts on the Moon. Both nations are courting partner countries and leaning on private companies for their Moon programmes.

The Artemis programme has been Nasa’s top priority under Nelson. The programme will lean heavily on SpaceX’s Starship rocket. Trump’s first Nasa chief, former US congressman Jim Bridenstine, launched the Artemis programme and persuaded Congress to increase the agency’s budget to fund it. Trump has picked billionaire businessman Jared Isaacman, an associate of SpaceX founder Elon Musk, to succeed Nelson as Nasa chief.

SpaceX is hoping for swift advances in Starship development during the second Trump administration, whose space agenda is expected to give the Artemis programme a greater focus on the more ambitious goal of landing people on Mars, Musk’s premier space aspiration.

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