NASA revamps Artemis moon landing program to reduce flight gaps and risk

NASA announced Friday that it is adding an additional lunar mission for Artemis astronauts before attempting a high-risk crewed lunar landing.

The shake-up in flight scheduling and the push for a faster pace came just two days after NASA’s new moon rocket returned to its hangar for additional repairs and a safety panel warned the space agency to scale back its overly ambitious goals for humanity’s first moon landing in more than half a century.

Artemis II – a lunar flyby by four astronauts – is on hold until at least April due to rocket problems.

The follow-up mission – Artemis III – aimed for a landing near the Moon’s south pole by another pair of astronauts a year or two later. But with long intervals between flights and growing concerns about the readiness of a lunar lander and moonwalking suits, new NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced that the mission would instead focus on launching a lunar lander into orbit around Earth for Orion capsule astronauts to practice docking in 2027.

The new plan calls for a moon landing – potentially even two moon landings – by astronauts in 2028.

“This will be our path back to the Moon,” Isaacman said.

Artemis’ first test flight was plagued by hydrogen leaks and helium flow issues ahead of uncrewed liftoff in 2022, the same things that plagued the Space Launch System rocket on the pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center earlier this month.

Isaacman stressed that “it should be incredibly obvious” that three years between flights is unacceptable and that he would like to reduce it to one year or even less.

During NASA’s famous Apollo program, he said, astronauts’ first flight to the Moon was followed by two more missions before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon. What’s more, he added, the Apollo moonshots came in rapid succession, just as the earlier Mercury and Gemini projects had rapid flight speeds, sometimes only a few months apart.

“No one here at NASA has forgotten their history books,” Issacman said. “We shouldn’t be comfortable with the current pace. We should go back to basics and do what we know works.”

To increase the pace and reduce risks, NASA will standardize the Space Launch System’s moon rockets in the future, Isaacman said.

The Aerospace Security Advisory Committee recommended this week that NASA revise its goals for Artemis III “in light of the demanding mission objectives.” There is an urgent need for the space agency to do so, the panel said, if the United States hopes to return its astronauts to the Moon safely. Isaacman said the revised Artemis flight plan addressed the panel’s concerns and was supported by the industry and the Trump administration.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.