NASA Cancels Landing Humans on the Moon via the Artemis 3 Mission

NASA postpones human landing mission to the Moon (photo: doc. NASA)

JAKARTA - NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced that they would cancel landing humans on the Moon through the Artemis 3 mission. However, the mission is planned to continue.

Artemis 3 will now be used to strengthen the overall Artemis program. The US space agency decided to make Artemis 3 a test mission to bring spacecraft into lunar orbit.

The mission will be used for the performance of the Starship lander owned by SpaceX and Blue Origin's Blue Moon. Although Artemis 3 did not land on the Moon, NASA will still land four astronauts on the Earth's natural satellite.

NASA will prepare Artemis 4 as the next human landing mission. This means that this landing mission will be delayed for a year or more. If lucky, NASA will manage to launch astronauts and their companions to the Moon as early as 2028.

Isaacman also explained the detailed reasons behind this delay. The agency is aware that their hardware readiness is still not up to the initial target. In fact, the space suit developed by Axiom Space is not ready to be used.

If the clothes are not ready, NASA plans to conduct early testing at the International Space Station (ISS). This step is taken to ensure the safety of astronauts before landing is actually carried out.

Isaacman is targeting a shorter time gap this time, only 10 months between Artemis 3 and Artemis 4. He admitted that he did not want to repeat the disappointing three-year gap as in previous missions.

The Artemis 5 mission is also being prepared to launch in the same year as Artemis 4. However, the use of this schedule is still uncertain. The launch of Artemis 5 will still depend on the success of the previous mission as well as the equipment and supplies needed.