NASA will announce a revised schedule for the Artemis program, which will land humans on the moon for the first time since 1972, at a press conference on Tuesday. Since there are many technical problems, it is clear that humans will set foot on the moon again in 2026, most preferably.

The Artemis II mission, which will send a crew of four astronauts to fly around the moon without landing, was supposed to launch in November 2024, but is likely to take place in the second half of 2025.

The Artemis III mission, which includes a landing, was supposed to launch in late 2025, but will not happen until early 2026.

Some sources say the idea would be for the Artemis II mission to be unmanned like Artemis I in late 2022. This would mean that Artemis III would send astronauts around the moon in 2025, for a total of ten days, and the “star” mission, the one with the moon landing, would be Artemis IV in 2026.

This altered schedule would allow more time to test the various components, as a major manned explosion would compromise the entire program.

There are delays because things take longer than expected. There are problems with the Orion capsule’s batteries, there are delays in preparing the capsule to accommodate a human crew, and there are also delays with the lander that SpaceX is developing.

It should also be said that Elon Musk’s company’s huge Starship rocket, which will play a key role in future missions to the moon, did not reach orbit, but also exploded in April and November last year. The new test is to take place in the first quarter of 2024.

And Blue Origin will develop a landing module for further missions.

Sources: CNN, Reuters