Artemis Moon Landing Mission Postponed Until 2026

Four astronauts for the Artemis II mission (photo: dock. NASA)

JAKARTA The United States Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) announced that the three Artemis missions would be postponed, including a core mission to land astronauts on the lunar surface.

NASA officials have decided to adjust the Artemis II and Artemis III schedules with aircraft development, operation, and integration for the two missions. With this decision, the launch schedule for Artemis II and Artemis III must be postponed.

Artemis II, a mission to test the Orion aircraft and the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, was originally planned to launch in November this year. However, based on the latest stipulation, the mission will be pushed back until September 2025.

Furthermore, the Artemis III mission which will land four astronauts on the Moon's surface will be postponed to September 2026. Following up on the mission, the mission to the Gateaway lunar space station via Artemis IV will be postponed to 2028.

NASA administrator Bill Nelson said that this schedule setback was deliberately carried out to maintain the safety of astronauts. Although lunar landing missions are very important to NASA, astronaut safety remains a priority.

"We have learned a lot since Artemis I, and the success of this initial mission relies on our commercial and international partnership to expand our reach and understanding of the human home in our solar system," Nelson said in an official statement.

NASA reminded again that they had experienced unwanted things while undergoing the Artemis I mission. Last year, the Artemis team found pieces of charcoal layers that were lost from the aircraft's protective parts.

Investigations into the matter are still being carried out. While waiting for the results of the investigation, NASA continues to test the circuit components in the air ventilation and temperature control section. In addition, they are also addressing problems with aircraft batteries.