The intended goal of 2024 is now shattered. The agency says it will be able to go to the moon in 2025 at the earliest.

For several years, NASA had been working towards a particularly ambitious goal: in 2024 the next man and the first woman would set foot on the moon. While this mission wasn’t initially scheduled to take place until 2028, that deadline was pushed forward under Donald Trump’s rule. A bold move. However, it now appears that 2024 is a bit too ambitious. And so NASA officially postpones the manned mission to the moon.

Reasons

There are several reasons why the moon landing has been postponed. For example, there are a number of challenges that NASA has had to face in recent times. One of these is the lawsuit filed by the space company blue Origin over the construction of the lunar lander. Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos sued NASA for disagreeing that competitor SpaceX had been tasked with building the prestigious lander. Although it has now been announced that Blue Origin has lost the case, work on the lunar lander has been temporarily halted. And that means it will be difficult to get it ready before 2024.

resume

NASA says that talks with SpaceX have now resumed. “It’s clear that we’re both eager to get back together and establish a new timeline for the moon mission,” said NASA CEO Bill Nelson. “Returning to the moon as quickly and safely as possible is our priority. But with the recent lawsuit, along with other factors (including the coronavirus pandemic and technical challenges, ed.), the first human landing under Artemis is unlikely to happen before 2025.”

Space suits
Earlier, NASA announced that there are also some problems with the spacesuits. NASA put hundreds of millions into the design of two brand-new suits. But its actual implementation continued to be delayed. The plan was for the two spacesuits to be ready by November 2024. But funding shortfalls, COVID-19 and technical challenges made that goal unachievable. It now looks like the spacesuits will not be ready to fly until April 2025 at the earliest. And so this also excludes a moon landing in 2024.

Although a moon landing in 2024 is now really off the track, postponement is certainly not an adjustment. For example, NASA is now making final preparations to launch its Orion craft into orbit around the moon in February. During this mission, known as Artemis 1, the Orion capsule and the Space Launch System rocket will be well tested. After Artemis 1, there will be both an unmanned and a manned test flight to our natural satellite before the long-awaited moon landing is on the program. And it won’t stop at just one. “We are planning at least ten moon landings,” Nelson said.

Other plans

Despite several setbacks, NASA is still making good progress. Not only is the next moon landing high on the agenda, the agency is also working on a real space station around the moon – Lunar Gateway. Intensive research into the moon will be carried out from the space station. In addition, the station will act as an intermediate station to other places in the solar system, including Mars. NASA therefore encourages all partners to continue working on lunar science and exploration as planned, despite the lunar landing delay. “We are closer than ever before to establishing a long-term human presence on the moon,” the agency said.

2024 is therefore just a bit too early. But there’s no question that we’re about to go into space again. It is not surprising that this takes a little more time than expected. “What we’re doing is one of humanity’s greatest undertakings,” said Pam Melroy on behalf of NASA. “And its scope, from the Space Launch System and Orion to Gateway, human landing systems, ground systems, communications, spacesuits and more; it’s staggering. But we are NASA and we are up to the challenge.”