Artemis 3 Moon Landing May Be Delayed To 2027, GAO Reports
A study from the Government Accountability Office said that NASA's Artemis 3 moon landing may be delayed until 2027.
Author:Hajra ShannonReviewer:Paula M. GrahamDec 04, 2023274 Shares68.5K Views
A study from the Government Accountability Office said that NASA'sArtemis 3 moon landing may be delayeduntil 2027.
The GAO report, which came out on November 30, said that NASA would not be able to reach its current goal of a late 2025 landing on the Artemis 3 mission because of the slow work being made on both the Human Landing System (HLS) lunar lander being made by SpaceX and new lunar spacesuits from Axiom Space.
Artemis 3 Moon Landing May Be Delayed
The Artemis flights by NASA will be some of the most famous of the decade. It will be the first time since Apollo that people have set foot on the Moon. A new study from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) says that an Artemis III delay is not only possible but probably inevitable.
In November of last year, NASA's Artemis I journey finally took to the sky. But it wasn't all good. The launch kept getting pushed back. There were so many delays that people started to worry about the project as a whole since many of the parts were nearing the end of their useful lives. But they did it, and after 25 days of travel, the Orion spaceship arrived safely back on Earth.
NASA then wants to use Artemis II to send people around the Moon. But after that, the space mission will finally land on the Moon's surface, giving many humans the same big chance that many Apollo astronauts had. The current plan is for that mission to launch in 2025, but the GAO thinks that an Artemis III Delay could push that back to at least 2027.
“„NASA and its contractors have made progress, including completing several important milestones, but they still face multiple challenges with development of the human landing system and the spacesuits. As a result, GAO found that the Artemis III crewed lunar landing is unlikely to occur in 2025.- Government Accountability Office
NASA is working on its method for landing on the moon more than a year faster than is usual for big projects like this.
“„The complexity of human spaceflight suggests that it is unrealistic to expect the program to complete development more than a year faster than the average for NASA major projects.- Government Accountability Office
“„GAO found that if development took as long as the average for NASA major projects, the Artemis III mission would likely occur in early 2027.- Government Accountability Office
Another issue that the GAO has pointed out is the progress being made on important systems, such as the new space suits that companies like Axiom Space are making right now. This year, Axiom showed off the next version of Artemis spacesuits. However, the company is still working on several things, including making sure that the suits will have enough emergency air for astronauts.
It's not a big surprise that GAO is worried about how long the Artemis III mission is taking now. A lot of this could change in the future, and NASA and SpaceX might be able to make it through. Already, the second Starship test went better than the first one. We're not ready to land that bad boy on the Moon yet, though.
We won't know for sure until later if the GAO's worries are strong enough to cause a major delay in Artemis III. NASA and other groups will have even more time to get ready for one of the most famous space projects of the last fifty years if the mission is pushed back to 2027.
Final Words
Plans for an exciting new project that would be the next big step in human exploration of space are likely to be pushed back at least two years. The Artemis project by NASA is meant to put people back on the moon for the first time since Apollo. It looks like the Artemis III project will have to be put off, though, according to a new study from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).
The beginning of NASA's Artemis I mission took place in November 2022. It wasn't an easy start either; the first part of the project was already being held up several times. Many people were afraid that it would stop the whole project because many of the parts being used were almost at the end of their useful life.
Hajra Shannon
Author
Paula M. Graham
Reviewer
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