According to insiders, the US space agency NASA apparently has to postpone its next manned missions to the moon due to technical problems. The second ArtemisMission will be delayed beyond its planned launch in late 2024 after vibration tests found problems with the batteries of the Lockheed Martin-built Orion capsule, two people familiar with the mission told Reuters on Monday. The batteries would need to be replaced.
It would have been the first crewed flight after the capsule launched in 2022 in a first test without astronauts on board. Also Artemis 3 – the first mission to land people on the moon with the Starship landing system from NASA contractor SpaceX, planned for the end of 2025 – will therefore be postponed. Tesla founder Elon Musk’s space company is taking longer to develop than planned, the four people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The Artemisprogram was launched in 2019. The billion-dollar project is intended to bring the first astronauts to the moon since the last Apollo mission in 1972. NASA declined to comment. Lockheed and SpaceX did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters.