NASA has announced that its Artemis 2 mission, which was scheduled to launch in September 2024, has been put back to April 2026. NASA's Artemis program is a series of missions aimed at returning humans to the moon and establishing a sustainable presence there.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson also announced, in a press conference on NASA TV, that the following mission to land two astronauts on the moon -- Artemis 3 -- will now not take place until mid-2027 at the earliest. The reason is a heat shield issue with NASA's Orion space capsule, which was identified during the uncrewed Artemis 1 mission, which completed an otherwise successful mission in late 2022.
"The safety of our astronauts is always first in our decisions. It is our North Star. We do not fly until we are ready," said Nelson. "We do not fly until we are confident that we have made the flight as safe as possible for the humans on board. We need to do this next test flight, and we need to do it right -- and that's how the Artemis campaign proceeds."
The issue appears to be cracking in Orion's heat shield, which is critical because temperatures reach about 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit when Orion reenters Earth's atmosphere. NASA, along with an independent review team, found that charred material on the heat shield wore away differently than expected. Gases generated inside a material called Avcoat were not able to escape as they should, which caused some of the material to crack and break off. "During Artemis 1, the heat shield behaved in unexpected ways," said Nelson.
It wasn't, however, dangerous. According to NASA, data shows the temperature inside Orion remained comfortable during Artemis 1. If there had been a crew onboard, they would have been safe.
"The updates to our mission plans are a positive step toward ensuring we can safely accomplish our objectives at the Moon and develop the technologies and capabilities needed for crewed Mars missions," said Catherine Koerner, associate administrator of Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
Artemis 2 will be a 10-day test flight that will launch in April 2026 on the agency's Space Launch System rocket. It will be the first time astronauts have gone to space atop an SLS, which provides more than two million pounds of thrust, according to NASA.
Planned to be the first of three crewed missions to the moon, Artemis 2 will test Orion's life support systems with four astronauts aboard.
After launching from pad 39B at KSC, Orion will orbit Earth twice before moving into a highly elliptical orbit. About 24 hours later, the crew will experience a brief eclipse of the sun by the moon before going for what rocket scientists call translunar injection -- a maneuver that sends a spacecraft on an unstoppable journey to orbit the moon.
The program's timeline includes several key missions:
* Artemis I (completed in November 2022): An uncrewed test flight of the Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft, successfully placing Orion into lunar orbit and returning it to Earth.
* Artemis II (April 2026): Planned as the first crewed test flight, this mission will carry four astronauts on a lunar flyby, testing life support systems and demonstrating crew capabilities.
* Artemis III (mid-2027): Aimed at achieving the first crewed lunar landing since 1972, this mission intends to land astronauts near the Moon's South Pole, focusing on scientific exploration and resource utilization.
* Artemis IV (2028/2029): This mission plans to deliver the I-HAB module to the Lunar Gateway and conduct another crewed lunar landing, furthering the development of lunar infrastructure.
* Artemis V (2030/2031): Aims to deliver additional Gateway modules and conduct a crewed lunar landing, supporting the goal of a sustained human presence on the moon.
Nelson could soon be replaced as NASA Administrator by Jared Isaacman, who was nominated by President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday. The billionaire founder of payment processing company Shift4 Payments, Isaacman was commander of the Polaris Program, which in August saw a team of four private astronauts launched 870 miles above Earth on a mission that included the first-ever spacewalk from a private spaceship -- a Space Crew Dragon capsule.