Ellen Phiddian
Cosmos science journalist
NASA’s crewed missions to the Moon have been delayed another year, with the next Artemis mission now due for 2026 – and the first landing aimed at 2027.
The Artemis II mission – the first to put humans into lunar orbit since 1972 – was supposed to launch in September 2025, but will now be no earlier than April 2026.
The delay comes from anomalies thrown up by the uncrewed Artemis I flight in 2022. The heat shield of the Orion spacecraft unexpectedly wore away during the ship’s re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.
Earlier this year, an audit found that the shield’s disintegration, among some other concerns, presented “significant risks” to the crew.
NASA has now completed an investigation of the heat shield and concluded it can keep the crew safe, with adjustments to the ship’s launch trajectory. The agency also says that the delay allows for time to look at Orion’s environmental control and life supports.
“The safety of our astronauts is always first in our decisions. It is our North Star,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson at a press conference.
“We do not fly until we are ready, we do not fly until we are confident that we have made the flight as safe as possible for the humans on board.”
Nelson said that the timeline change, as well as the decision to keep the Orion heatshield (which is already attached to the capsule for the Artemis II mission), was made unanimously by him and other senior officials at NASA.
Reid Wiseman, commander of the planned Artemis II mission, said at the press conference that while “delays are agonising”, he and the rest of the crew wanted to find the cause of the heat shield problems, and take time with internal and external experts to examine it.
“We really appreciate the willingness to take the risk to actually slow down, and understand root cause, determine the path forward,” said Wiseman.
The uncrewed Artemis I mission successfully launched, flew around the Moon, and returned to Earth in 2022.
Artemis II – which aims to fly 4 astronauts around the Moon, but not land on it – was slated for a launch in May 2024 after the Artemis I mission, but delays have moved the target several times.
Artemis III, which will land people on the lunar south pole, is targeted for mid-2027.
Subsequent Artemis missions will aim to set up a space station on the Moon for further space missions.
Despite the delay, outgoing administrator Nelson said that NASA and its corporate and international partners needed a “shared sense of urgency” in continuing the Artemis program.
“The Chinese government has announced their intention to land on 2030. It may be earlier,” said Nelson, who – as a presidential appointee – will be replaced next year by Donald Trump’s pick for the position, billionaire Jared Isaacman.
“They’re not planning to land humans on the vital portions that we’re going to land – the lunar south pole,” said Nelson.
The Moon’s south pole, thought to contain water reserves, is a promising site for a long-term crewed lunar station.
“It is vital for us to land on the south pole so that we do not cede portions of that lunar south pole to the Chinese,” said Nelson.
