NASA Postpones Artemis Moon Exploration Mission Until 2027

Illustration of astronaut exploration on the Moon on the Artemis mission (photo: dock. NASA)

JAKARTA In a press conference held on Thursday, December 5, NASA said that the astronaut's scheduled moon landing would be delayed. This happened because the launch schedule for the Artemis 2 mission was postponed.

Prior to the revised schedule, the Artemis 2 mission was supposed to be launched in September next year, but now the schedule has been postponed to April 2026. With the change in the launch schedule for the Artemis 2 mission, the Artemis 3 mission was also postponed to mid-2027.

The launch schedule of these two missions has changed after NASA finished investigating the problem at the launch of Artemis 1. NASA has found the cause of erosion in the hot shield on the Orion spacecraft about two years ago.

NASA's deputy administrator, Pam Melroy, revealed that they already knew what made the protective material out of place. However, it did not explain what the cause or what NASA had done to fix the problem.

Melroy only explained that the erosion of the heat shield occurred because many hot bees were restrained rather than those thought in the outer layers of the heat shield. This excessive heat forms the gas trapped in the material.

"This causes internal pressure to increase and cause cracks and uneven exfoliation in the outer layer," Melroy said, quoted from Spacenews. This conclusion was made after the independent review team conducted an extensive investigation.

Although NASA's leaders will change in the near future, as made by Elected President Donald Trump, NASA officials have decided to revise the current launch schedule so that a continuing delay does not occur.

"We are experiencing a setback from day to day. We have to make this decision," Melroy said. "If you wait for the new administrator to be confirmed and the team to accelerate all the technical work we have closely monitored, I think it will be much worse."