DThe US space agency NASA has postponed the manned lunar orbit “Artemis 2”, previously planned for November 2024, to September 2025 due to problems with the rocket and spacecraft. The planned manned lunar landing “Artemis 3” will be postponed accordingly to September 2026, NASA announced on Tuesday at a press conference. “Artemis 4,” another planned moon landing, is still scheduled for September 2028.
“We are doing something incredibly difficult,” said NASA boss Bill Nelson. “And safety is our top priority.” That’s why we want to give the teams more time to work on the current challenges.
A ferry from high-tech pioneer Elon Musk's SpaceX company will be used for the first landing of astronauts on the moon since 1972.
US astronaut Christina Koch, her US colleagues Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen were actually supposed to fly around the moon in the “Orion” capsule for around ten days in November 2024. They would have been the first four astronauts near the moon since the astronauts of the “Apollo 17” mission stepped on Earth's satellite for some time in 1972.
At the end of 2022, the “Space Launch System” rocket system and the “Orion” capsule were tested for the first time in an initial preparatory mission. An unmanned Orion capsule orbited the moon. However, there were technical problems with “Artemis 1”, including the heat shield around the capsule.
The “Artemis” program, named after the Greek goddess of the moon, aims to land a woman and a non-white person on the moon for the first time. The European Space Agency Esa and space agencies from several other countries are involved in “Artemis”.
The last time people were on the moon was around 50 years ago with the “Apollo 17” mission – the landing took place on December 11, 1972. In total, the USA was the only country to date to bring twelve astronauts with the “Apollo” missions between 1969 and 1972 the moon.
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