Nasa says Artemis mission to Moon will be majorly delayed as it reveals details of spacecraft problem
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Nasa says its Artemis mission to put astronauts back on the Moon will be further delayed.
The space agency found problems with the heat shield on the Orion spacecraft that will eventually carry humans back to the lunar surface.
It said that it had found a fix to that problem. But it will require a different trajectory and yet more delays to the mission schedule.
The next mission – Artemis II, which will see humans fly around but not onto the Moon – has been pushed back by seven months, to April 2026. Artemis III, which will actually see humans descend onto the Moon, will be delayed until 2027.
It is the latest in a run of delays for the mission. The first, uncrewed Artemis mission had originally been due to fly in 2016 – but a series of issues meant that it did not actually happen until 2022.
The delay also comes amid scrutiny of Nasa’s plans for the years to come. Nasa announced the latest update on the Artemis mission just a day after Donald Trump announced that he had chosen Jared Isaacman, who is close to Trump ally and SpaceX head Elon Musk, as his pick to run the space agency.
