With the “Artemis” mission, the US space agency NASA wants to return to the moon. This was originally supposed to happen this year – but the schedule has been delayed. Another US mission had previously failed with an attempt to land on the moon.
The US space agency NASA has postponed the manned lunar orbit “Artemis II”, previously planned for November 2024, to September 2025 due to problems with the rocket and spacecraft. The planned manned moon landing “Artemis III” will be postponed to September 2026, NASA announced at a press conference. “Artemis IV”, another planned moon landing, is still scheduled for September 2028.
“We’re doing something incredibly difficult,” said NASA chief Bill Nelson. “And safety is our top priority.” That’s why they want to give the teams more time to work on the current challenges.
The US astronaut Christina Koch, her colleagues Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman and the Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen were originally supposed to fly around the moon in the “Orion” capsule for around ten days in November 2024.
Astrobotic also has problems
Meanwhile, the first attempt at a US moon landing in more than half a century failed. Due to a fuel leak and problems with the solar cells, it is no longer possible to have the “Peregrine” landing module land gently on the lunar surface, the company Astrobotic Technology announced. How the damage occurred remained unclear.
Astrobotic now wants to try to let the lander fly in space for as long as possible in order to gain knowledge for the next flight to the moon – in about a year. It was possible to align the spacecraft with the sun so that the battery was fully charged and had energy for around 40 hours.
$108 million attempt
The unmanned Peregrine lander was scheduled to land on the moon on February 23, the first US space shuttle in 50 years. The company stated the costs at 108 million US dollars (around 98.5 million euros). The USA last landed on the moon in 1972. Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic’s goal was to be the first commercial company to land on the moon.
An Astrobotic competitor from Houston has set the same goal. He could be the first private company to land his lander on the lunar surface in February. So far, only the space organizations of four countries have succeeded in landing on the moon: the Soviet Union, the USA, China and India.