Americans postpone their return to the moon to 2025 “at the earliest”

Published on : 11/09/2021 – 23:36

The return of humans to the Moon as part of the American Artemis program has been delayed from 2024 to 2025 “at the earliest,” NASA announced on Tuesday. The date of 2024 had been set by Donald Trump’s administration but was widely considered to be almost impossible to meet. This delay was therefore relatively expected, but this is the first time that NASA officially recognizes it.

The American space agency was waiting in particular for the resolution of a legal dispute concerning the development of the future lander before announcing a new schedule. “We’ve wasted nearly seven months in litigation, and that probably pushed back the first human landing until 2025 at the earliest,” NASA boss Bill Nelson said at a press conference.

But “there are other reasons,” he added. The date of 2024 set by the previous administration was not “technically feasible”, he asserted. He also criticized the lack of funds allocated by Congress in recent years for the development of the moon lander.

Artemis 2 in May 2024

This mission, which is to take the first woman to lunar soil, is named Artemis 3. Bill Nelson has also announced that the Artemis 2 mission, which will be the first in the program with astronauts on board but which will not land on the Moon now had “a potential takeoff date of May 2024”.

This second mission, which was previously announced for 2023, “will go further than any human has ever been. Probably nearly 65,000 km beyond the moon and then return to Earth,” the boss said. from NASA.

Artemis 1, the first test mission to the Moon which will not include an astronaut on board, is for its part still scheduled for February 2022, as recently announced.

“Progress” for SpaceX’s moon lander

All these missions will use NASA’s new giant rocket, called SLS, which will propel the Orion capsule to the moon. It is currently fully assembled at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, awaiting take-off.

The cost of developing the capsule, in which the astronauts will be located, was increased from $ 6.7 billion to $ 9.3 billion until Artemis 2, Bill Nelson said on Tuesday. But the astronauts will then have to be transferred aboard a moon lander in order to land on and leave the moon.

The construction of this lander has been entrusted to SpaceX. Named Starship, it is currently under development in Texas – where the NASA boss has promised to visit.

The work between NASA and SpaceX on this lander had to be interrupted after Blue Origin, which was also in the running for the award of this flagship contract, lodged a complaint against the choice of the space agency, believing that the process of selection had been unfair. This complaint was dismissed last week by a federal court.

SpaceX must successfully land without an astronaut on board on the Moon, a demonstration being part of NASA’s requirements for this contract.

Lasting presence on the moon

The Artemis program, which is also to take the first colored person to the moon, echoes Nasa’s Apollo program in the 1960s, but is intended to establish a lasting presence on the moon and prepare for journeys to Mars.

With AFP