Artemis 2 and 3 – NASA expresses doubts about the schedule of the manned lunar mission

After the uncrewed Orion space capsule orbited the moon as part of the “Artemis 1” mission last November and December, NASA is working on follow-up missions. Artemis 2 is scheduled to launch astronauts into lunar orbit in November 2024. Here, the US space agency still sees the mission as being on track. NASA announced at a press conference that the exact date is still being worked out. US astronaut Christina Koch, her American colleagues Victor Glover and Reed Wiseman, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen had previously visited the space capsule in the US state of Florida for the first time, where they are scheduled to begin the spaceflight. The mission is scheduled to last ten days. The four astronauts will be the first humans to approach the moon since Apollo 17 astronauts set foot on the lunar surface for some time in 1972.

The time of the presentation of “Artemis 3” is not clear

The next mission, “Artemis 3”, should go one step further. Another manned flight including landing on the moon will take place here. Whether the launch of the mission planned for 2025 can actually be carried out remains open for now. In order to put people on the moon, certain elements must be in place, in particular the landing system, which the US aerospace company SpaceX is still working on, NASA representative Jim Frye said at the press conference. If everything is not ready in time, you may fly on another mission. A NASA spokesperson added that they visited the SpaceX Starbase facility in Texas and will release the information gathered there to the public as soon as possible.

With the “Artemis Program,” named after the Greek goddess of the moon, a woman and a non-white person are set to land on the moon for the first time. The European Space Agency, Esa, and space agencies from several other countries are participating in Artemis.

This message was broadcast on 08/09/2023 on Deutschlandfunk.