spacetoday.net: NASA delays Artemis 2 and 3 missions again

Posted: Sat, Dec 7, 2024, 10:23 AM ET (1523 GMT)
Orion for Artemis 2 in testing (NASA)

NASA has again delayed the next Artemis missions to the moon. At a briefing Thursday, NASA announced that the Artemis 2 mission, the first crewed flight of the Orion spacecraft, was now scheduled for launch in April 2026, a seven-month delay. NASA also delayed Artemis 3, the first crewed landing as part of the Artemis campaign, from September 2026 to mid-2027. The schedule came after the agency completed an investigation into heat shield erosion seen on the Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft, concluding that the "skip reentry" technique caused gases to build up inside the heat shield material, leading to cracks and erosion. NASA will modify the reentry approach for Artemis 2 without changing the heat shield, and modify the heat shields for later missions. Agency leaders reaffirmed their support for the current Artemis architecture even as the incoming Trump administration is expected to review and potentially revise it.