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NASA on Tuesday delayed its plans to return astronauts to the surface of the moon, announcing the agency is targeting 2025 for a crewed landing.
NASA’s new schedule represents a delay from the previous goal of 2024, set by former President Donald Trump’s administration in 2017 – which represented an ambitious push from the agency’s target of 2028 before Trump took office. “The Trump administration’s target of 2024 human landing was not grounded in technical feasibility,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson told reporters on a conference call. (https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/09/nasa-delays-astronaut-moon-landing-to-2025.html)
Known as the Artemis program, NASA has a series of missions planned to use its Space Launch Systems rocket and Orion capsule to launch to the moon. The aggressive timeline of 2024, set by the Trump administration hit the hurdles of the coronavirus pandemic and a lawsuit filed by the rocket company Blue Origin.
In announcing the delay, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said Congress did not provide enough money to develop a landing system for the program. In addition, the 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. (https://www.space.com/nasa-changes-artemis-moon-landing-goal-2024)
In April, NASA awarded the Human Landing System (HLS) contract to build the agency's new moon lander to SpaceX. A contender for the contract, Blue Origin lodged official objections, published an open letter and ultimately filed a federal lawsuit against NASA in response. While the petitions were denied, the federal lawsuit halted all collaborative work on the moon lander until, on Nov. 4, it was announced that Blue Origin had lost.
Now that the lawsuit is closed, NASA can finally work with SpaceX on its moon lander—a critically important piece of equipment, as it will carry astronauts to and from the lunar surface. Officials said technology for new spacesuits also needs to ramp up, before astronauts can return to the moon.
Nelson made note of China’s ambitious and aggressive space program, and warned it could overtake the U.S. in lunar exploration unless more funds are pumped into the project.
READ MORE: https://time.com/6115843/nasa-moon-mission-2025/