Nasa’s Moon mission chief resigns after making ‘error’

THE head of Nasa’s human space flight programme has abruptly resigned after making a “mistake” a week before the first launch of astronauts from US soil for a decade.

Doug Loverro was overseeing future astronaut launches and Nasa’s mission, known as Artemis, to land humans back on the Moon by 2024.

On May 27, two Nasa astronauts are due to take off on a Spacex rocket for the International Space Station.

The resignation happened just two days before Mr Loverro was due to lead a “launch readiness review” meeting.

In an email to colleagues, he said his departure was because of “risks” he took to meet Nasa’s Moon deadline, which was set by the White House.

Mr Loverro said: “It is clear that I made a mistake in that choice for which I alone must bear the consequences.”

He said the mission to get humans back on the Moon “is certainly not easy, nor for the faint of heart, and risktaking is part of the job description.”

He took a “risk earlier in the year because I judged it necessary to fulfil our mission. Now, over the balance of time, it is clear that I made a mistake in that choice for which I alone must bear the consequences.”

Mr Loverro added: “It had nothing to do with commercial crew. It had to do with moving fast on Artemis, and I don’t want to characterise it in any more detail than that.”

The mistake reportedly related to breaking a rule during Nasa’s procurement of Moon landers.

Last month, it awarded three contracts for landers, including to Spacex and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin.

Nasa said the May 27 launch would go ahead despite the resignation.