The 2024 goal imposed during the Donald Trump administration will be delayed due to pandemic reasons and delays for NASA in the supply chain.
NASA’s current administrator , Bill Nelson, has confirmed that NASA will not send a manned mission to the Moon until at least 2025.
In a press conference, Nelson pointed out that the mission will be sent “no later than 2025”, delaying the goal imposed by up to a year in the middle of the creation of the Artemis program during the Donald Trump administration.
What was expected
Multiple events triggered this delay by NASA for the return of humans to the Moon .
The strongest reason has been the pandemic, which sent many engineers home to work, delaying the delivery times of the different components that make up the Artemis program .
Also, the US government did not provide all the money requested by the space agency during 2020 , so it has had to work with a much tighter budget than expected.
The judgment that NASA maintained with Blue Origin for the decision to choose SpaceX as the company in charge of bringing the lunar lander to the satellite is not excluded. In the end, time was lost and Jeff Bezos’ company did not get what it hoped for.
Likewise, the construction of the SLS and the Orion capsule continued to work slowly, causing Artemis I , Orion’s flight to orbit the Moon without a crew, is scheduled for 2022, when it is scheduled for the end of 2021 .
The NASA says that among the astronauts go to the moon will be the first woman and the first person of color to make that trip.
The US space agency seeks to establish a sustainable presence on the Moon and use the lessons learned to plan a crewed trip to Mars in the 2030s.