The space agency had been aiming for 2024 for the first moon
landing by astronauts in a half-century.
In announcing the delay, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said
Congress did not provide enough money to develop a landing system for its
Artemis moon program and more money is needed for its Orion capsule. In
addition, a legal challenge by Jeff Bezos' rocket company, Blue Origin, stalled
work for months on the Starship lunar landing system under development by Elon
Musk's SpaceX.
Officials said technology for new spacesuits also needs to
ramp up, before astronauts can return to the moon.
NASA is still targeting next February for the first test
flight of its moon rocket, the Space Launch System, or SLS, with an Orion
capsule. No one will be on board. Instead, astronauts will strap in for the
second Artemis flight, flying beyond the moon but not landing in 2024, a year
later than planned. That would bump the moon landing to at least 2025,
according to Nelson.
“The human landing system is a crucial part of our work to
get the first woman and the first person of color to the lunar surface, and we
are getting geared up to go,” Nelson told reporters. “NASA is committed to help
restore America's standing in the world."
Nelson made note of China's ambitious and aggressive space
program, and warned it could overtake the U.S. in lunar exploration.
NASA's last moon landing by astronauts occurred during
Apollo 17 in 1972. Altogether, 12 men explored the lunar surface.
During a National Space Council meeting in 2019, Vice
President Mike Pence called for landing astronauts on the moon within five
years “by any means necessary.” NASA had been shooting for a lunar landing in
2028, and pushing it up by four years was considered at the time exceedingly
ambitious, if not improbable.
Congress will need to increase funding, beginning with the
2023 budget, in order for NASA to have private companies competing for the
planned 10 or more moon landings by astronauts, Nelson said.
The space agency also is requesting a bigger budget for its
Orion capsules, from $6.7 billion to $9.3 billion, citing delays during the
coronavirus pandemic and storm damage to NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in
New Orleans, the main manufacturing site for SLS and Orion. Development costs
for the rocket through the first Artemis flight next year stand at $11 billion.
Vice President Kamala Harris will convene her first National
Space Council meeting, as its chair, on December 1. Nelson said he updated her
on the latest schedule and costs during their visit to Maryland's Goddard Space
Flight Center on Friday.
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