Astronauts not expected to walk on moon before 2025, NASA says
NASA does not expect its astronauts will walk on the moon before 2025 — the first formal acknowledgment that the agency will not meet the 2024 deadline set by former President Donald Trump that would have coincided with his anticipated second term.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has blamed litigation surrounding the human landing system for the delay. NASA selected Spacex to build the system that would lower astronauts to the lunar surface; Blue Origin fought that decision for seven months. Earlier this month, a federal judge ruled against Blue Origin in its lawsuit, and the company’s founder Jeff Bezos said he would respect the court’s judgment. A redacted opinion was released last week.
Nelson also cited COVID-19, a lack of funding for the human landing system and the former Trump administration’s policies for why NASA won’t return to the moon in 2024.
“The Trump administration target of a 2024 human landing was not grounded in technical feasibility,” Nelson said during a recent news conference.
NASA’S Artemis program will use the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft to send the agency’s first woman and person of color to the moon.
And although NASA had previously stood by its 2024 goal, many space experts have long thought it was unrealistic.
Phil Smith, a space industry analyst at Brycetech, called it an “arbitrary” date. He doesn’t think 2025 is realistic, either, especially not knowing how much money Congress in the future will authorize.
Nelson noted that the Orion spacecraft’s development costs had increased to $9.3 billion from fiscal year 2012 through the first crewed flight that could occur no later than May 2024. The development cost had previously been $6.7 billion, and this first crewed flight — the Artemis II mission that will send astronauts around the moon (but not land on it) — was scheduled for April 2023.
“It’s clear to me that the agency will need to make serious changes for the long-term success of the program,” he said. “NASA’S operations, and those of our commercial partners, has to improve. There are several steps we are taking to better position the agency and the Artemis Program for success.”
One such step was NASA’S decision to split its human spaceflight directorate into new directorates focused on two important tasks: operating missions that are currently in space and developing future systems that will get the agency to the moon and Mars. This split allows NASA to have focused oversight for both areas.
Nelson also said NASA is also working to consolidate multiple Space Launch System rocket contracts into one Exploration Production and Operations Contract, and it’s seeking commercial partners to design, develop and produce spacesuits.
“NASA is committed to help restore America’s standing in the world, and Artemis is certainly going to help us achieve that,” Nelson said.
The agency has spent many years developing the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket.
According to NASA’S Office of Inspector General, the Orion spacecraft began as the Crew Exploration Vehicle in 2006 when a contract was awarded to Lockheed Martin. The spacecraft was initially part of NASA’S Constellation program, a previous attempt to return to the moon.
When this program was canceled by President Barack Obama’s administration, Congress passed the NASA Authorization Act of 2010 requiring the agency to use its existing contracts, investments, workforce and capabilities to perform missions beyond lowearth orbit. The Crew Exploration Vehicle became the Orion Multipurpose Crew Vehicle in 2012.
“The production and use of SLS and Orion are crystalized in an act of Congress, so NASA is required by law to move forward on these systems, an unprecedented situation,” Smith said in an email. “However, the overall architecture within which SLS and Orion would be used was unclear.”
In December 2014, Orion took its first and only uncrewed flight into orbit — launched atop a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket, not NASA’S Space Launch System rocket — and was praised as a huge step toward the agency’s goal of reaching Mars.
Then from 2014 to 2017, Orion was to be part of NASA’S Asteroid Redirect Mission. NASA was refocused on the moon in 2017, and Orion became part of the Artemis program in 2019.