On December 5, NASA announced that the planned launch of the Artemis 2 mission, which will send four people around the moon and back, has been delayed again. When to wait for disembarkation and what is the reason for the delay?
On December 5, NASA announced that the planned launch of the Artemis 2 mission, which will send four people around the moon and back, has been delayed again. When to wait for disembarkation and what is the reason for the delay?
Previously, Artemas 2 was planned for September 2025, but yesterday NASA postponed the launch to April 2026, writes Space.com.
In addition, the Artemis 3 device, which was supposed to land on the moon with a crew, has been postponed for approximately half a year: from the end of 2026 to the middle of 2027.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said at a press conference that industry and international partners need time to test the Orion capsule to be sure it is ready to safely transport astronauts into deep space and back to Earth. «Space is demanding,» he added.
After the Artemis 1 flight, analyzes showed that Orion’s heat shield had worn more unevenly during its entry into Earth’s atmosphere than engineers had anticipated. The temperature inside Orion remained close to room temperature, meaning the astronauts would be safe if anyone was on board. But engineers needed to find out what happened — and now they have come to some conclusions, NASA officials announced at today’s press conference. This was due to Orion’s return trajectory.
NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy explained that as the capsule dipped in and out of the atmosphere as part of its planned pass, heat built up inside the outer layer of the heat shield, causing gases to be trapped inside the heat shield. However, according to her, there is no need to develop a new version of the heat shield. Changing the entry trajectory will be enough to minimize the problems that occur during Artemis 1.
China, with which the United States is competing to conquer the Earth’s satellite, has said it plans to land astronauts on the moon by 2030. Both countries are targeting the south pole of the moon, which is believed to be rich in water ice, which is crucial: a resource for settlement or a research outpost.
Earlier it became known that the Ukrainian entrepreneur’s company will deliver a landing module for the NASA mission to the moon. And Nikon will make a mirrorless camera for NASA, which astronauts will use to photograph the moon.
We wrote in detail about what humanity knows about the Moon and how it is going to return there.
