WASHINGTON DC, Dec 5 — Originally scheduled for 2025, Nasa’s Artemis III mission is likely to be delayed. This is due to various complications in the development of the lunar lander and the astronauts’ suits. The crew of the next lunar mission is not expected to blast off before 2027 or 2028.
Nasa’s Artemis III mission, aiming to return humans to the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years, will not go ahead as planned at the end of 2025.
According to a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) — the audit, evaluation and investigation agency of the US Congress responsible for overseeing public accounts — the mission is likely to be delayed by around two or three years. In particular, the GAO points to a delay in the development of the Orion spacecraft, which is to carry astronauts from Earth to lunar orbit, and its lunar lander, which will take them to the satellite’s surface.
Nasa also needs to perfect a number of items of equipment, such as spacesuits, which are obviously essential to the success of the Artemis III mission.
One of the reasons for these delays is that Nasa is delegating a great deal of responsibility for this mission. The manufacture of the lunar lander (which will take astronauts to the Moon and back to Orion before returning to Earth) has been entrusted to SpaceX, and the spacesuits to Axiom Space.
Faced with these challenges, Nasa appears to have no choice but to postpone its mission, and we’ll probably have to wait until 2027, or even 2028, to see a human walking on the Moon.
After an unmanned test phase followed by a first rotation flight around the Moon, the Artemis III exploration mission has a target launch date of December 2025. It should be noted that, for the first time in the history of lunar missions, at least one woman will be part of the crew. — ETX Studio
