The United States space agency (NASA) will delay the Artemis II manned mission, which must fly over the Moon, to 2025, and the Artemis III mission to September 2026, which will send astronauts to the Moon 54 years after Eugene Cernan did.
NASA's announcement comes a few hours after the Peregrine module, which left this Monday for the Moon, will not be able to reach its planned destination for February 23, since it only has 40 hours of fuel, according to the Astrobotic company. , owner of the ship.
In a telephone press conference, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said Tuesday that the "safety of the crew is his highest priority" and that the Artemis missions need "more time" to be ready.
"I want to announce that we are adjusting our schedule to ship Artemis II in September 2025, and by September 2026 to Artemis III," Nelson explained.
Artemis II, a mission that was initially scheduled for November of this year, must fly four astronauts aboard NASA's Orion spacecraft over the Moon.
In April of last year it was announced that this ten-day mission will have Reid Wiseman as commander and Víctor Glover as pilot, while astronaut Christina Hammock Koch and Jeremy Hansen will serve as mission specialists.
Artemis II must serve as a prelude to Artemis III, initially scheduled for 2025 and with which NASA intends to send the first woman and the first African-American to set foot on the Moon.
Nelson explained at the press conference that the change in the schedule will not alter the Artemis 4 mission, a second lunar landing that is still scheduled for September 2028.
The Artemis program started in 2022 with the flyby of the Moon by an unmanned mission and is expected to be used for future exploration of Mars.
The NASA administrator said that we have entered a "golden era" of space exploration, which opens the door to the exploration of Mars and to revealing the "secrets" of the formation of the solar system.
