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NASA’s manned lunar mission, which was set to be realized in 2024, has been delayed. The mission for crew members, including women and people of color, to descend to the moon has been pushed back to 2025.
At a recent press conference, NASA Director Bill Nelson not only announced the delay, but also explained the cause. A federal court recently dismissed a lawsuit against NASA over a lunar lander contract by Blue Origin, led by Jeff Bezos. In response, Director Nelson said it meant moving forward with the Artemis plan, and after NASA was not ready to reveal the plan’s schedule, he did eventually talk about it.
The first schedule is for Artemis 1, where NASA will launch the first SLS rocket, on February 12, 2022. The 101-meter-tall rocket is equipped with the spaceship Orion, and assembling is not completed soon, so some tests need to be carried out, but it is showing a strong will to launch early next year.
Director Nelson also mentioned a rough schedule for the Artemis 2 mission that will take astronauts into space. The manned mission is a round-the-clock flight without landing on the moon, previously scheduled for April 2022, but was changed to May 2023.
Then, he said that the Artemis 3 mission, where humanity goes to the moon again, is in 2025, not in 2024, as planned. have.
As it was expected to be postponed, it would not be too surprising if Artemis 3 did not materialize in 2024. Nevertheless, the reason is interesting. Nelson said the first manned lunar landing was delayed until 2025 after losing nearly seven months in the lawsuit over the aforementioned Blue Origin lawsuit. NASA was unable to contact SpaceX until the lawsuit was over, as required by law. However, SpaceX continued to develop the lunar lander regardless of NASA compensation. It’s not clear what he lost during the seven months of the lawsuit. Director Nelson did not provide specific details on the matter.
Nelson continued to shift the blame, citing previously dissatisfied congressional budget allocations. He denounced the former president of the Trump administration as saying that the Artemis project was not based on technological feasibility. In fact, it was Trump’s idea to move the manned lunar mission from 2028 to 2024. Reasons for the delay include the spread of COVID-19, supply chain problems, and damage caused by Hurricane Ida.
Aside from the technical realization issues, the Bloorigin lawsuit may have delayed the Artemis plan, but it’s hard to blame Bezos on other issues, such as an unfinished spacesuit. According to a report compiled by the auditor last summer, delays in the development of the spacesuit also made a lunar landing in late 2024 not feasible.
NASA also reported up-to-date information on Orion’s finances. The original cost of the spacecraft was $6.7 billion, but according to revised estimates, it is now at $9.3 billion. Although the price has increased, he added that most of the first development tasks for SLS and Orion are being delayed.
Nelson said that China is now facing an aggressive and superior space program and that it is highly likely that China will go down to the moon and that it could be done much sooner than expected. Methods should be as aggressive as possible, he said, stressing that the new schedule depends on a sufficient budget and that Congress will need to increase the NASA budget for 2023. Related information can be found here.
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