NASA postpones the next moon landing to the Artemis IV mission

NASA is dramatically changing its Artemis program. Space Agency held press conference on Friday to discuss the ongoing delays Artemis II mission And to address various changes in the software, which will help reduce long waits between launches.

In light of the multiple delays to the Artemis II mission, NASA believes returning humans to the Moon with Artemis III is too ambitious. It is now postponing the moon landing until Artemis IV.

It was the mission of Artemis II It is scheduled to be released in February But it was postponed after NASA’s SLS rocket failed its first rehearsal due to a hydrogen and helium fuel leak. Second trial run It was more successful

Speed ​​up Artemis missions

According to NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, the Artemis II delay stems from the SLS rocket’s extended launch cadence. Isaacman told reporters on Friday that after three years, skills can “atrophie”, and asking people to stay for years at the next launch is unacceptable.

The key to more successful launches, he said, is simply to launch frequently.

“Launching a complex rocket like the SLS every three years is not a path to success,” Isaacman said during the press conference. “When you encounter some of the same issues between launches, you take a hard look at your remediation process, whether you’re getting the real technical root cause, or you’re getting closer to it.”

Right now, NASA is making changes to the agency and the Artemis missions, including changing personnel, standardizing the SLS rocket so it can launch more frequently and getting back to basics to launch missions faster.

The ultimate goal is for missions to be ready to launch every 10 months instead of every three years.

When will each Artemis mission be released now?

NASA still intends to send astronauts to the Moon by 2028. Below is the new launch schedule for the Artemis missions:

• Artemis 2: Will launch no later than April 1, 2026, and will send astronauts around the moon for tests.
• Artemis 3: Launch scheduled for mid-2027 to conduct tests, contact with lunar landers in low Earth orbit and test equipment that will be launched on Artemis 4.
• Artemis IV: Launch scheduled for early 2028, will return humans to the Moon.

What will Artemis III do now?

Now that it’s no longer a lunar landing mission, Artemis III’s new goal is to launch into low Earth orbit, rendezvous with NASA’s lunar landers, conduct tests and learn more about the effects of microgravity on lunar suits.

This is a response to Isaacman Concerns raised According to NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Committee, the gap in mission objectives between Artemis 2 and Artemis 3 was too large, posing a risk to astronauts. The additional test flight will provide NASA with more data to better protect astronauts when they go to the moon.

“Not only did we jump to Apollo 11, we did it through Mercury, Gemini, and many other Apollo missions with a launch cadence of every three months,” Isaacman told reporters.

These discussions have been taking place behind closed doors for some time, and NASA says Congress and its commercial partners, like Boeing, are fully on board with the new plan.