Artist’s illustration of NASA astronauts at the moon’s south pole, a region believed to be abundant in water ice, a valuable resource that could help to expand our presence further into the solar system.
(Image credit: NASA)
NASA’s Artemis moon program delays are sparking concern among Congress members.
Last week, NASA announced revised targets for Artemis 2 and 3 missions – September 2025 and September 2026 respectively. These missions will send astronauts around the moon and mark the first crewed mission to its surface in over 50 years.
Both launches are delayed by about a year, mainly due to the need for further testing of crucial Artemis hardware, such as NASA’s Orion crew capsule heat shield which displayed unexpected performance deficiencies during the uncrewed Artemis 1 mission in late 2022.
The Committee on Science, Space and Technology of the U.S. House of Representatives held a hearing to discuss the new Artemis plan, and many members expressed worry over the setback.
“The Chinese Communist Party is actively seeking international partners for a lunar mission — a lunar research station — and has stated its ambition to have human astronauts on the surface by 2030,”
Committee Chairman Frank Lucas said.
Former NASA Administrator, Mike Griffin, urged a restart to the Artemis program, stressing the need to ensure its success in light of China’s growing efforts in space. The broader sentiment in the committee was that the new moon race is part of a larger competition with China, and coming in second could have implications for U.S. national security.
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