NASA’s Artemis II manned mission delayed until 2025
By CNN
NASA is expected to announce a “months-long delay” to the first crewed mission of the Artemis program, which aims to send astronauts on a journey to fly by the moon. The delay affects NASA’s Artemis II mission, which was initially slated to lift off this November but is now expected to take place no earlier than 2025.
The delay comes as a result of several challenges that the space agency must address before it can safely fly humans to the moon. One of the challenges includes damage sustained by the ground structure used to build, transport, and launch the Space Launch System rocket.
Additionally, the heat shield on the Orion spacecraft, intended to be the astronauts’ home on Artemis II, eroded in an unexpected way during the Artemis I mission. The Inspector General also noted that preparing Orion for its first crew and integrating it with the European Service Module, which provides power and propulsion, is expected to take the longest.
The Artemis II mission was designed to build upon the successful completion of the Artemis I mission, an uncrewed test flight that concluded in December 2022. The crew for the Artemis II mission had already been announced and includes NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, as well as Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
The delay of the Artemis II mission 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 and 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, although the inspector general has indicated that delays will likely push the mission to 2026 or later.