NASA Postpones Lunar Mission Schedule, Admits It's Quite Technically Difficult

Mission to the Moon postponed to 2025. (photo: spacex)

JAKARTA - The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is unlikely to be able to carry out a mission to the Moon in 2024. The mission, dubbed Artemis, will be a year behind schedule.

When Donald Trump was still President of the United States (US), he had set a schedule for the launch of the Artemis project in 2024. But it seems that will not happen, and is rescheduled for 2025.

"Trump's 2024 goal is not really a technically feasible goal. We (now) expect no earlier than 2025," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.

That target has recently become more challenging, as NASA experienced delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and a lawsuit filed by Blue Origin, halting development on the landing system to be used for initial crew landings.

Citing Space, Wednesday, November 10, the Artemis program aims to return humans to the Moon and create a sustainable human presence on and around the Moon's surface, which will begin with landing the first woman and first person of color on the Moon this decade.

In April, NASA awarded SpaceX the Human Landing System (HLS) contract to build the NASA Moon lander. However, contract contender Blue Origin filed a formal objection, published an open letter and eventually filed a federal lawsuit against NASA.

While the petition was rejected, a federal lawsuit suspended all cooperation on the Moon lander until November 4, it was announced that Blue Origin had lost.

According to Nelson, now that the lawsuit is closed, NASA can finally work with SpaceX back on its Moon lander. This is a very important piece of equipment, as it will carry astronauts to and from the Moon's surface.

“I spoke last Friday with Gwynne Shotwell, CEO of SpaceX. We both underlined the importance of getting back to the moon as quickly and safely as possible, and Friday's court decision means progress for the Artemis program. But our team still needs more time to work on the specifics before we can see the timeframe for readiness," explains Nelson.

Nelson also shared the specifics of the launch timeline for the Artemis program, where NASA will initially launch Artemis 1 in February 2022, the program's first test flight that will launch the Orion spacecraft aboard a Space Launch System (SLS) rocket on an unmanned mission around the Moon.

While Artemis 2, the test flight that will send astronauts above Orion around the Moon and back, will launch around May 2024, which was September 2023 and Artemis 3, the program's first manned Moon landing mission, will launch no earlier than 2025.

In the future, Artemis 2 will travel further than humans have ever done, perhaps 40,000 miles (about 64,000 kilometers) beyond the Moon before returning to Earth.

Not Just Launch, But Competition Between Countries

In addition to fueling competition between US companies, Nelson added the need to increase the budget by taking into account international competition from China.

"We are facing a very aggressive and good Chinese space program. China's space program is increasingly able to land Chinese taikonauts (on the Moon) much earlier than originally thought," Nelson said.

Nelson pointed to China's recent achievements, including placing the first module for the new Tiangong space station in orbit, sending astronauts to remain on the station, continuing robotic missions to the Moon and more.

"We have every reason to believe that we have a competitor, a very aggressive competitor, in China who is returning to the moon with taikonauts. And that is NASA's position and I believe the United States government that we want to be there the first time back to the moon after more of half a century," Nelson said.

Looking at China, Nelson revealed that Artemis' goal was not simply to land humans on the Moon, but, "we will advance technology and learn well to live and work in other worlds. We will do this while inspiring generations of scientists, engineers, explorers and STEM (science, technology, next engineering and mathematics) professionals of the Artemis generation," he concluded.