NASA has announced that it is delaying its challenging Artemis II and Artemis III missions , which will see astronauts travel around and then land on the moon for the first prison term in over 50 years . The missions will be pushed to April 2026 and mid-2027 respectively , which is around six calendar month afterward than antecedently planned .
The time lag is due to problems with the Orion space vehicle ’s rut shield . Orion is the capsule in which crew members for each missionary post will go , and it must resist temperatures of nearly 5,000 degree Fahrenheit during re - unveiling through the Earth ’s atmosphere . On the previousArtemis I missionin 2022 , the Orion ejection seat was used in an uncrewed test and get along generally well , fill in the mission as planned .
However , on land it was reveal that the hotness screen around the capsule , which will protect astronauts inwardly from utmost temperature , had take down more than anticipated . The heat shield is design to be ablative , mean it will be worn down somewhat during re - ingress , but the charring of the material was big than expected and a theme free earlier this year find that there were “ vital event ” with the shielding that needed to be fixed before it could be secure for cosmonaut to travel in .
“ Throughout our appendage to investigate the heating shield phenomenon and determine a forward way , we ’ve stayed dead on target to NASA ’s core values ; safety and datum - drive psychoanalysis remained at the forefront , ” say Catherine Koerner , associate decision maker of NASA ’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate in astatement . “ The update to our mission plans are a positivistic step toward assure we can safely accomplish our objectives at the Moon and develop the technologies and capability call for for crewed Mars missions . ”
NASA also shared that it had identify the issue with the heat shield material , which was that accelerator were building up in a level of material called Avcoat and could not escape , causing the cloth to crack . It accent that if there had been crew inside Orion during Artemis I , they would still have been secure and would not have been exposed to life-threatening temperatures , so the 10 - day Artemis II military mission will go in advance using the current heat cuticle system of rules , but the flight of re - incoming will be adjusted to derogate these egress . New heating system shields will be manufactured for Artemis III to set aside gas to permeate the material .
“ The Artemis campaign is the most daring , technically challenging , collaborative , external endeavor humanity has ever set out to do , ” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson . “ We have made important progress on the Artemis campaign over the past four years , and I ’m proud of the work our team have done to prepare us for this next dance step forward in geographic expedition as we look to learn more about Orion ’s life support systems to keep up crew operation during Artemis II . We need to get this next tryout flying right wing . That ’s how the Artemis campaign succeeds . ”
