55bmw NASA pushes back astronaut flights to the moon again

FILE PHOTO: This file photo provided by NASA shows, from left, NASA Astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, and Canadian Space Agency Astronaut Jeremy Hansen at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, on March 29, 2023. (Josh Valcarcel/NASA via Associated Press)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — NASA announced more delays Thursday in sending astronauts back to the moon more than 50 years after Apollo.

Administrator Bill Nelson said the next mission in the Artemis program – flying four astronauts around the moon and back – is now targeted for April 2026. It had been on the books for September 2025 after slipping from this year.

The investigation into heat shield damage from the capsule’s initial test flight two years ago took time, officials said, and other spacecraft improvements are still needed.

Article continues after this advertisement

This bumps the third Artemis mission – a moon landing by two other astronauts – to at least 2027. NASA had been aiming for 2026.

FEATURED STORIES TECHNOLOGY Get TECNO's latest AI-powered PHANTOM V Flip 2 5G on its first sale for only PhP27,999 TECHNOLOGY Phishing scam uses Globe Telecom’s official SMS channel – CICC TECHNOLOGY Bitcoin price reaches $100,000 for the first time

NASA’s Artemis program, a follow-up to the Apollo moonshots of the late 1960s and early 1970s, has completed only one mission. An empty Orion capsule circled the moon in 2022 after blasting off on NASA’s new Space Launch System rocket.

Although the launch and lunar laps went well, the capsule returned with an excessively charred and eroded bottom heat shield, damaged from the heat of reentry. It took until recently for engineers to pinpoint the cause and come up with a plan.

Article continues after this advertisement

NASA will use the Orion capsule with its original heat shield for the next flight with four astronauts, according to Nelson, but make changes to the reentry path at flight’s end. To rip off and replace the heat shield would have meant at least a full year’s delay and stalled the moon landing even further, officials said.

Article continues after this advertisement

READ: NASA decides to keep 2 stranded astronauts in space until February

Article continues after this advertisement

During the flight test, NASA had the capsule dip in and out of the atmosphere during reentry, and gases built up in the heat shield’s outer layer, officials said. That resulted in cracking and uneven shedding of the outer material.

This image provided by NASA shows the Artemis II Orion spacecraft lifted from the Final Assembly and Testing (FAST) Cell and placed in the west altitude chamber inside the Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’S Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on June 28, 2024, for a series of tests simulating deep space vacuum conditions. (Rad Sinyak/NASA via Associated Press)

The commander of the lunar fly-around, astronaut Reid Wiseman, took part in Thursday’s news conference at NASA headquarters in Washington. His crew includes NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen.

Article continues after this advertisement

“Delays are agonizing and slowing down is agonizing and it’s not what we like to do,” Wiseman said. But he said he and his crew wanted the heat shield damage from the first flight to be fully understood, regardless of how long it took. Now they can focus with this “large decision behind us.”

During NASA’s vaulted Apollo program, 24 astronauts flew to the moon, with 12 landing on it. The final bootprints in the lunar dust were made during Apollo 17 in December 1972.

READ: Nasa to make second attempt at debut moon rocket launch

Nelson said the revised schedule should still have the United States getting astronauts back on the lunar surface before China, which has indicated 2030 for a crew moon landing.

According to Nelson, the space agency has put on notice all Artemis contractors, including Elon Musk’s SpaceX, to “double-down” to meet the schedule deadlines. SpaceX’s mega-rocket Starship – making test flights from Texas with increasing frequency – is how astronauts will get from the Orion capsule in lunar orbit down to the surface on the first two Artemis moon landings.

Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again. Your subscription has been successful.

Subscribe to our daily newsletter

SIGN ME UP

By providing an email address. I agree to the Terms of Use and acknowledge that I have read the Privacy Policy.

Nelson said he’s already called Jared Isaacman55bmw, the SpaceX-flying billionaire nominated this week by Trump to lead NASA, and invited him to NASA headquarters in Washington.

TOPICS: Astronaut, NASA READ NEXT European satellites launched to create artificial solar eclipses Get TECNO’s latest AI-powered PHANTOM V Flip 2 5G on its... EDITORS' PICK INC rallies to back Marcos stand vs VP impeachment Maris Racal, Anthony Jennings’ ‘betrayal’ sparks celeb reactions Senate probe bares ‘amusing’ stories on use of fake PWD cards American vlogger died during abduction – PNP Palace ‘fellowship’: House assures Marcos vs ‘threats’ Fake PWD IDs cost gov’t P88.2B in taxes in 2023 MOST READ DFA files yet another protest over Dec. 4 harassment of BFAR ship Baring Maris Racal, Anthony Jennings’ private convos by ex-GF poses legal issues Death from multiple-vehicle crash in QC rises to 4; truck driver nabbed American vlogger died during abduction – PNP Follow @FMangosingINQ on Twitter --> View comments

• 55bmw
• pushes
• back
• NASA
• astronaut