NASA Director: The Artemis moon landing program may not be earlier than 2025

More than 50 years have passed since Apollo 11 landed on the moon, but NASA has plans to change that, according to SlashGear. The agency's Artemis program aims to use a new rocket and capsule system to send humans to the lunar south pole for exploration in the coming years. But the process of achieving this ambitious goal has not been smooth. Despite the announcement in 2019 that people will return to the moon in five years, the reality has become quite complicated. Last November, NASA pushed back the date of the manned lunar landing.

According to The Guardian, NASA Director Bill Nelson blamed Congress in part for the delay, saying they did not allocate enough money to cover the heavy costs of the mission, such as developing the lunar lander. The legal challenges of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, which claims that NASA's process of selecting rival SpaceX to develop the landing system is unfair. However, Blue Origin ultimately lost the case, so SpaceX will continue to develop the lander.

The original goal of the Artemis mission was to land humans on the moon by 2024, but this goal is widely considered unrealistic. The new goal is to land unmanned spacecraft on the moon as early as 2025, a time frame that is easier to achieve.

Nelson said: "Returning to the moon as quickly and safely as possible is a priority for the agency. However, due to recent lawsuits and other factors, the first human moon landing under Artemis' planned plans may not be earlier than 2025. ”

The Artemis program will consist of a series of missions, starting with an unmanned Artemis I mission to test NASA's new rockets and spacecraft, and finally a manned mission. In Artemis I, space launch systems rockets and Orion capsules will be launched and sent back six days after being in orbit around the moon.

It will be followed by the Artemis II mission, which aims to take place in 2024, which will be a manned test flight of the same capsule and rocket, and the crew will fly around the moon before returning to Earth.

The big mission that humanity will set foot on the moon again is Artemis III, which is aimed at 2025. A special lander will take astronauts from orbit to the lunar surface, where they will stay for a week or so before returning to Earth.

In addition to this, NASA plans to carry out further missions to build the Lunar Gateway space station and build infrastructure on the moon, such as habitats, rovers and scientific equipment.

Although all of this will be expensive. "Looking ahead, NASA plans to make at least 10 moon landings in the future, and the agency needs to start with the 2023 budget to significantly increase funding for future lunar device competition," Nelson said. ”

Currently, NASA is advancing testing of the Artemis I core stage, and recently the agency is conducting engineering tests to ensure the rocket is ready for its mission.