WASHINGTON, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- NASA announced on January 9 that it has made the latest progress adjustments to the Artemis manned lunar landing program, including the postponement of the Artemis 2 manned lunar flight and the Artemis 3 manned lunar mission, with the aim of allowing more time to test and solve technical challenges to ensure mission safety.
Artemis is a new moon landing program announced by the United States in 2019. On November 16, 2022, the Orion spacecraft, which carried out the "Artemis 1" unmanned flight test mission around the moon, lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard the "Space Launch System", a new generation of American lunar landing rocket. This is the first step in a series of U.S. lunar exploration missions, laying the foundation for subsequent manned lunar exploration missions.
According to the original plan, the first manned mission around the moon under the new lunar landing program, Artemis 2, will be completed in 2024, and the Artemis 3 mission, which will send astronauts to the moon, will be implemented by the end of 2025.
According to the latest communiqué released by NASA, after this adjustment, the agency plans to carry out the "Artemis 2" manned mission around the moon in September 2025 and the "Artemis 3" mission in September 2026, so that the first astronauts will land near the south pole of the moon. The Artemis 4 mission, the first trip to the Gateway lunar orbital space station, remains on schedule for 2028.
NASA said the Artemis 2 mission was postponed primarily to ensure astronaut safety. As the first manned flight test of the Orion spacecraft, the mission will validate the critical environmental controls and life support systems needed to carry astronauts. During component testing, the bureau found that it would take more time to resolve the issue. The team is currently troubleshooting the battery and addressing the technical challenges by improving the ventilation and temperature control circuit components.
In order to ensure that the experience gained from Artemis 2 missions is included in future missions, Artemis 3 has been postponed accordingly. The revised timeline will also give vendors more time to test and improve new features and components, including the Human Landing System developed by SpaceX and the next-generation spacesuit developed by Axiom Space.
In addition, NASA originally planned to launch the first integrated component of the Gateway lunar orbital space station in October 2025, but the timeline is still under review. The bureau hopes to allow more time for development and better alignment with the Artemis 4 mission. (ENDS).