NASA has announced its upcoming mission to land humans on the Moon has been delayed until 2027.
The Artemis II and Artemis III missions will see a crewed spacecraft fly around the Moon, and put human feet back on the Moon, respectively.
But concerns over the Orion spacecraft's heat shield have led NASA to delay Artemis II until April 2026 at the earliest, and Artemis III until mid 2027.
More on Artemis
If successful, the Artemis programme will see NASA land the next American astronauts and first international astronaut on the South Pole region of the Moon.
It's the first time NASA is sending astronauts to the Moon since the Apollo programme.
This is not the first time NASA has announced Artemis mission delays.
At the beginning of 2024, the agency said Artemis II and Artemis III would be pushed back to September 2025 and September 2026, respectively.
What's wrong with the Orion spacecraft?
The Orion spacecraft is the vessel that NASA is using to fly astronauts into space as part of its Artemis programme to return to the Moon.
The uncrewed Artemis I mission launched from the Kennedy Space Center on 16 November 2022.
NASA's Space Launch System sent the Orion spacecraft on journey stretching 1.4 million miles beyond the Moon and back, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on 11 December 2022.
During the return of Artemis II, the first crewed mission in the programme, Orion will enter Earth’s atmosphere and slow from 25,000 mph to about 325 mph, then launch parachutes for a controlled splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
But investigations into the Orion spacecraft used during Artemis I reveal it had undergone "an unexpected loss of charred material during re-entry," NASA says.
NASA worked with an independent review team to establish the cause, and found "charred material on the heat shield wore away differently than expected."
It found the Artemis I flight "did not allow for enough of the gases generated inside a material called Avcoat to escape, which caused some of the material to crack and break off."
Avcoat is the material that protects the crew inside the Orion capsule as it journeys from space back into Earth's thick atmosphere, causing it to heat up to about 2,800°C / 5,000°F.
But despite the issues, NASA says tests show the temperature inside Orion remained "comfortable" and would have allowed any crew onboard to have returned safely.
Engineers are now preparing the Artemis II crewed mission with the heat shield already attached to the Orion capsule.
Full steam ahead?
"The Artemis campaign is the most daring, technically challenging, collaborative, international endeavor humanity has ever set out to do," says NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.
"We have made significant progress on the Artemis campaign over the past four years, and I’m proud of the work our teams have done to prepare us for this next step forward in exploration as we look to learn more about Orion’s life support systems to sustain crew operations during Artemis II.
"We need to get this next test flight right. That’s how the Artemis campaign succeeds."
"Throughout our process to investigate the heat shield phenomenon and determine a forward path, we’ve stayed true to NASA’s core values; safety and data-driven analysis remained at the forefront," says Catherine Koerner, associate administrator, Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
"The updates to our mission plans are a positive step toward ensuring we can safely accomplish our objectives at the Moon and develop the technologies and capabilities needed for crewed Mars missions.”
Preparing for Artemis III
Artemis III is set to be historic. NASA says the mission will fly the first woman and first person of colour to the Moon.
So how do revelations surrounding the Artemis I tests affect Artemis III?
NASA says engineers are assembling and integrating the Orion spacecraft for Artemis III, and that the Artemis I investigations are informing mission prep.
It says it's "implementing enhancements to how heat shields for crewed returns from lunar landing missions are manufactured to achieve uniformity and consistent permeability."
For now, all eyes are on Artemis II, which will see NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, take a 10-day trip around the Moon and back.
Undoubtedly more lessons will be learned from Artemis II regarding the ability to keep crew safe and comfortable, in preparation for the Artemis III mission to land on the Moon.
What do you think about the Artemis programme? Should we be returning to the Moon? Let us know by emailing contactus@skyatnightmagazine.com
