NASA delays Artemis II and III moon missions to 2025 and 2026

NASA announced Tuesday it has delayed both the crewed Artemis II mission to fly around the moon and the Artemis III launch that aims to send the next humans, including the first woman, to the lunar surface for the first time since 1972.

“We are doing something incredibly different,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “In the process of all this, as we remind everybody at every turn, safety is our top priority. And to give Artemis teams more time to work through the challenges with first-time developments, operations and integration, we’re going give more time on Artemis II and III.”

Artemis II was supposed to fly as early as November this year but now won’t until at least 10 months later targeting September 2025.

Artemis III was on NASA’s roadmap to fly as early as December 2025 but now is targeting September 2026. Both missions will embark from the Kennedy Space Center.

Nelson said Artemis IV, which aims to be the first flight to support NASA’s lunar Gateway space station, is still tentatively set for September 2028.

“Although challenges are clearly ahead, our teams are making incredible progress,” Nelson said.

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The Artemis I mission that launched on a successful test flight at the end of 2022 sent the Orion spacecraft on a weeks-long mission around the moon, testing its ability to survive both the trip and the nearly 5,000-degree Fahrenheit reentry.

Amit Kshatriya, a deputy associate administrator for NASA’s Moon to Mars program, said issues with that heat shield are among the reasons for the delay.

“What we did see in the performance of the heat shield itself was some unexpected phenomenon that we need to make sure we understand perfectly,” he said.

While the shield provided good thermal protection, there was some expected char created on reentry that unexpectedly broke free from the spacecraft. Teams have been investigating that for most of 2023 but don’t expect to complete that until the spring.

He also mentioned hardware components related to the life support system that had already passed testing for Artemis II but then failed the same tests for Artemis III, leading to the decision to replace those components for both flights.

Getting access to those parts on both Orion spacecraft at Kennedy Space Center, changing it out and double-checking every part they touch will take time.

“We know how to fix it. We just need to make sure we take the time to do it, according to the workmanship standards that we expect for a human-rated vehicle,” he said.

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Another facet of the Artemis II delay relates to the launch abort system that’s designed to propel the Orion capsule away from the Space Launch System rocket in the event of an emergency.

“The SLS is an extremely powerful machine, and the Orion is rated to fly in deep space,” he said. “When you design a capability for the Orion to actually separate from the launch vehicle in the event of a loss of control, that environment during separation is quite severe.”

During qualification tests, NASA has found some cases where the escape system might underperform, and the fix for that has yet to be determined, he said.

“Even though we really want to fly, we want to fly it as safely as we can,” he said.

The crew for Artemis II was announced last year and will continue to train for what will be about an eight-day mission. The team consists of NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.

The hardware for the flight is mostly already onsite at KSC, but the core stage of the SLS remains at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, and won’t arrive until at least spring.

The Artemis III mission’s crew has not been announced but that could come as early as September this year, which would be within NASA’s 18- to 24-month window it normally announces crew ahead of a flight.

But that mission is reliant on SpaceX developing its new Starship rocket to act as the human landing system for that crew while also waiting on Axiom Space to develop new spacesuits.

SpaceX will also be tapped for Artemis IV and have to interact with Gateway, while Blue Origin is working on a second human landing system for an eventual Artemis V mission.

“We need more time on landing development and on the spacesuit development,” Kshatriya said. “Even if we could fly Artemis II on the timeframe that we had planned originally, we would still need the extra time for Artemis III.”

A big part of that is SpaceX not only getting its Starship to orbit, which it has yet to do, but also nailing down a required fuel transfer in low-Earth orbit so it can actually make its way to the moon.

SpaceX also has to perform at least one uncrewed successful test landing on the moon with Starship, which is now on the calendar for 2025. Finally, a docking system has to be built so Starship can actually connect with Orion while orbiting the moon so the astronauts can get on board and then make their way to the surface.

Meanwhile, Axiom Space has to fabricate the new spacesuits, which are essentially miniature life-supporting spacecraft.

“With the [spacesuits] and with the lander, that’s a huge conglomeration of different development activities that have to meet together, and not any single one of them is more important than the other,” Kshatriya said. “We need them all to be ready and all to be successful in order for that very complicated mission to come together.”

NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free said that while Artemis III is still aiming to be a lunar landing mission, the specter remains that the mission could change.

“What are we going to learn on [Artemis II] that might make us change [Artemis III]? What are we going to do from a hardware availability? If the hardware is not going to be there in a reasonable time, then maybe we need to make a change,” he said.

He had previously said Artemis III might instead become focused on building out Gateway, giving more time for the eventual safe return to the surface of the moon.

“We’re kind of constantly looking at what is going to be there and what’s going to be ready and what do we need to do to make sure that ultimately, we minimize the risk,” Free said. “There’s always going to be a risk. It’s a flight test.”

And as NASA hammers home on each update on Artemis, safety is their No. 1 concern, Free said.

“As we prepare to send our friends and colleagues on this mission, we’re committed to launching as safely as possible,” he said. “And we will launch when we’re ready.”