Safety First: NASA Postpones Artemis Manned Moon Mission to 2025
The North American space agency NASA has announced the rescheduling of the launch dates for the Artemis manned missions, which are set to be the first crewed flights to the Moon since 1972. The initial Artemis II manned mission was planned for this year, but its launch has now been pushed to September 2025. This information was revealed in a statement on NASA's official website.
Representatives from NASA stated that the primary reason for the delay is the need to ensure the complete safety of the crew. Issues with batteries and improvements to life support systems, including ventilation, need to be addressed. "To safely conduct our future crewed Artemis missions to the Moon with astronauts, we are targeting September 2025 for Artemis II and September 2026 for Artemis III. Safety is our top priority," said NASA in a statement.
According to Reuters, defects in the batteries of the Lockheed Martin-designed "Orion" capsule were discovered during vibration tests at NASA. These batteries will need to be replaced. Additionally, the agency is awaiting the results of the investigation into the loss of the heat shield during a test flight in the spring of 2022. The investigation into the causes of this incident is expected to conclude this spring.
NASA also reported that the Artemis IV mission, aimed at delivering humans to the "Lunar Gateway" space station in 2028, remains in the development stage.
It's worth noting that the Artemis II mission to the moon plans to send a crew of four astronauts – three Americans and one Canadian. As part of this mission, a woman will also fly to the Moon for the first time in history. However, Artemis II does not include a lunar landing – the crewed rocket is expected to orbit the Moon and return to Earth, similar to the Apollo mission.
The landing of humans on the Moon is planned as part of the Artemis III mission, using the Starship landing system from NASA contractor SpaceX.
Recall that The Gaze reported that NASA successfully transmitted high-definition live video from a space probe to Earth using a prototype laser communication system. The video, featuring a cat nicknamed Taters, was transmitted over a distance of 31 million kilometers, roughly 80 times the distance between Earth and the Moon.
The test video, lasting only 15 seconds, was transmitted using an advanced device called the "flight laser transceiver." Thanks to this technology, the video signal reached Earth in 101 seconds and was transmitted at a maximum speed of 267 megabits per second.