It won't be a surprise to anyone if NASA doesn't send astronauts to the lunar surface in 2024. Whatever
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson broke the news at a press conference, but did so in a peculiar manner.
The federal court's decision last Fridayin which Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin lost a lawsuit against NASA over its lunar lander contract, “means progress for the Artemis program”, – Nelson said. But he cautioned that NASA is still not ready to reveal the timing of the mission. Nelson then began to discuss the timing of the mission.
The first date is already known.Artemis I, which NASA is set to launch the SLS rocket for the first time, is scheduled for February 12, 2022. NASA recently completed rocket stowage, including the installation of the Orion spacecraft. The 101-meter-tall rocket still needs to undergo some testing, but overall everything appears to be going according to plan.
Nelson announced the approximate date of the missionArtemis II, which will “take astronauts further into space than ever before”. This crewed mission to the Moon and back (non-landing) is now scheduled for May 2023 (previous date was April 2022).
Regarding Artemis III's highly anticipated missionlanding people on the moon, it will happen in 2025, not in 2024, as previously planned, Nelson said, blaming the delay on Jeff Bezos and the US Congress. The revised timeline will not affect subsequent mission schedules, including the construction of the Lunar Gateway (a space station in lunar orbit) and various activities planned for the lunar surface in the second half of the 2020s, he added.
Source: gizmodo
Illustrations: NASA
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