Why did NASA delay the return of humans to the Moon until after 2025?

The NASA has postponed until 2025 the return of its astronauts to the surface of the Moon, scrapping the 2024 goal of the Trump administration, citing “development challenges.”

This is stated in the first major update to the Artemis program provided under the Biden-Harris Administration, which has reiterated a long-term commitment to

“Returning to the Moon as quickly and safely as possible is a priority for the agency. However, with recent demand and other factors, it is likely that the first human landing under Artemis″, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement.

Prior to that mission to the surface, NASA is focusing on flight tests of the unmanned Artemis I and the crewed Artemis II around the Moon. Nelson announced that the development cost of the Orion spacecraft is now $ 9.3 billion from fiscal year 2012 to the first crewed flight test no later than May 2024. The Artemis II mission includes sending astronauts aboard Orion more far in space than any human has ever traveled before, roughly

Those missions, as well as a future unmanned lander demonstration mission with SpaceX, will precede the Artemis III manned lunar landing mission. NASA also plans to issue a formal request next spring for

Last week, NASA won a court case brought by Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, which it had sued after losing a landing contract with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

and that has led to the first human moon landing being probably not before 2025 ″, Nelson said by phone.

“The good news is that NASA is making solid progress,” Nelson noted, citing the fact that the Orion mission crew capsule has now docked atop the massive Space Launch System rocket at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Trump’s 2024 goal is not technically feasible

Among the challenges the agency and its partners have addressed in developing deep space exploration, Nelson noted that a delayed lunar landing is due, in part, to development challenges for the first time, a delay of nearly seven months due to the HLS (Human Landing System) lawsuit, that Congress did not allocate sufficient funding for the HLS, the COVID-19 pandemic, and a 2024 Trump Administration landing target that

“Going forward, NASA is planning at least 10 moon landings in the future, and the agency needs significant increases in funding for future lander competition, starting with the 2023 budget.”Nelson said.

Meanwhile, efforts are being made to reduce costs and optimize operations. The agency has issued a request for information to the industry to maximize efficiency in the Space Launch System (SLS) enterprise and has also asked for spacewalks for the missions of the International Space Station and Artemis program.

It has also been about 45 days since NASA announced that it was reorganizing its manned spaceflight programs in two key mission directions, Space Operations, as well as Exploration Systems Development. That change is helping the agency implement focused oversight to support and execute missions in the

The agency update does not affect subsequent Artemis mission schedules and lunar surface plans, including the development of the Gateway lunar orbital complex and other activities later in the decade.

The Moon, the new target

China, the world’s second-largest economy, has invested billions of dollars in its military-led space program, hoping to have a space station with

It has already sent rovers to the Moon, even to the far side, and is aiming for a first

Humans last landed on the Moon in 1972 on the Apollo 17 mission.

NASA says the Artemis program will include the first woman and the first African-American person to set foot on the surface of Earth’s natural satellite.

The agency wants to build a sustained habitat on the Moon and use the lessons learned from long expeditions there to develop a manned mission to Mars by the 2030s.

Agencies

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