NASA officially postpones man’s return to the Moon

The timing of the Artemis mission plan to return man to the Moon has again been revised upward. NASA reported that the astronauts’ flyby of the Moon and the landing of a man on the satellite itself will take place later for a period of 7 to 9 months. This isn’t the worst thing that could happen to the Artemis program. In theory, it is in danger of being closed.

Image source: NASA

The giant lunar rocket SLS (Space Launch System) with the Orion spacecraft took off for the first time in November 2022 after many years of delays. The Artemis 1 mission was unmanned. The ship circled the Moon and returned to Earth. The flight was marred by only one significant observation – the ship’s thermal protection, instead of burning out evenly, fell off in places in whole pieces, opening fire access to the ship’s hull. This did not lead to an increase in temperature in the cabin, but it carries a clear danger.

Until recently, NASA hid the essence of the problem. Today it has become known, as has the agency’s decision on what to do about it. It is reported that gases are formed inside the Avcoat heat shield material during the heating process, the accumulation of which and their excess pressure tore out pieces of the protection. Such destruction did not lead to a critical increase in temperature inside the Orion capsule and could not harm the crew. Therefore, in particular, no one will change the heat shield already installed on the new ship. At the same time, the conditions for Orion’s entry into the Earth’s atmosphere after its flyby of the Moon during the Artemis 2 mission will be changed to reduce both the heating of the heat shield and the likelihood of its destruction.

Since assembly of the SLS rocket for the Artemis 2 mission has already begun, the decision to leave the ship’s thermal protection as is should not result in a launch delay. And yet, NASA made a strong-willed decision to postpone sending people on the first flyby of the Moon in more than 50 years from September 2025 to April 2026. The schedule for landing people on the Moon during the Artemis 3 mission will also be shifted: from October 2026 to mid-2027.

However, even these deadlines remain optimistic, since all NASA contractors from the mobile launcher assembler to the rocket and lunar lander are critically behind schedule, not to mention total budget overruns. The fate of NASA’s entire lunar program could change dramatically in the winter of 2025 after US President Donald Trump takes office and appoints new leadership at the agency.