NASA officially Delay Artemis 2 Moon Mission to 2026 and Artemis 3 Crew Landing to Mid 2027
In 2023, NASA announced that its Artemis 2 Mission will commence in September 2025 and Artemis 3 crewed moon landing mission in September 2026. However, NASA recently rescheduled the date to enable its partners to meet the mission requirements.
On December 5, NASA announced that it has officially delayed its planned Artemis 2 mission which will carry four people around the moon and back to Earth from September 2025 to April 2026. The agency also revealed that it has also delayed its Artemis 3 mission, which is a crewed lunar landing from late 2026 to mid-2027.
NASA revealed that the extra time is necessary to enable its engineers and partners to complete the prepping of its Orion crewed capsule. Remember that NASA started its Artemis space program in November 2022 with the launch of its Artemis 1 uncrewed mission. In that mission, an uncrewed Orion spacecraft flew around the moon and back to Earth the next month.
The entire world celebrated the success of that mission and anticipated the Artemis 2 mission to be more interesting as it will carry humans onboard. The recent announcement made by NASA implies that humans will have to wait for a longer time to see the moon in real time since the last Apollo 17 mission in December 1972.
Why NASA Is Serious About Delaying The Artemis crewed missions
Just like most space agencies, NASA hopes to succeed in all of its space missions. Unlike uncrewed missions where the agency can take some level of risks, crewed missions are carefully planned to guarantee the safety of the astronauts and ensure that the mission succeeds.
Hence, during the December 5th announcement, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson revealed that the additional time is essential to enable the agency and its international partners to build the Orion capsule that will safely carry the crew to deep space and back to Earth.
To date, NASA has only sent the Orion spacecraft on two missions to orbit. The first mission was a brief test flight to Low Earth orbit in 2014 where the spacecraft spent a short time before splashdown. The second mission was the Artemis 1 uncrewed test mission to the moon during which the spacecraft spent 25 days to travel to moon orbit and safely return to Earth in December 2022.
While the Artemis 1 mission was a great success, postflight investigations revealed that the spacecraft’s heat shield was worn away as it reentered our planet’s atmosphere. Despite the heat shield worn away, NASA engineers suggest that the temperatures inside the spacecraft maintain its near room temperature.
This implies that the crew would have survived the reentry heat assuming anyone was onboard the Orion spacecraft. However, NASA engineers hope to fix the issue before the Artemis 2 astronauts will fly around the moon aboard the Artemis 2 spacecraft. Hence solving the encountered during the reentry trajectory is the first step toward sending humans around the moon aboard the spacecraft.
Possible Solutions That Will Make Artemis 2 Mission Possible in April 2026
NASA engineers are putting in a greater effort to ensure the success of the Artemis 2 mission in April 2026. Unlike the Artemis 1 spacecraft, the engineers are already redesigning the Orion spacecraft to reduce the duration the capsule spends in the high-temperature range during reentry.
Hence, NASA engineers modify Orion to travel safely during reentry into Earth’s atmosphere and makes a safer splashdown. The Artemis 2 spacecraft will splash down in the Pacific Ocean much closer to San Diego than the earlier planned splashdown range. This implies that the recovering team will easily reach the astronauts for a rescue in case any fault develops during reentry.
Assuming that NASA required to replace the heat shield completely in the spacecraft, the agency would have delayed the Artemis 2 mission to late 2026. Hence, the extra months added to the previous date will enable NASA engineers to carefully evaluate the spacecraft and ensure that it meets every requirement for the safety of its passengers.
As for the Artemis 3 mission, NASA is collaborating with many partners to ensure the success of that mission. The agency also wants to land humans on the moon before China and India commence with their crewed lunar explorations in the 2030s. Let’s hope that NASA succeeds with its great ambition.
