NASA’s ambitious Artemis programme gave a shot in the arm for space exploration with its mission to put humans back on the Moon. But now, it seems like the space agency’s Artemis 3 mission, which will land astronauts on the Moon, will not happen at least until 2027. The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on Thursday documenting the difficulties that NASA is facing with the programs. “NASA and its contractors made progress since our last report on the Artemis missions, but they are still facing challenges with developing the lunar lander and space suits. For example, some flight tests have been delayed, which could affect the timing of subsequent tests. And a significant amount of complex work remains. As a result, we found that the lunar landing mission is unlikely to occur in 2025 as planned,” said the report. For the report, GAO assessed NASA data, documentation and policy. It analysed contract documentation, contractor risk charts and technology maturation plans. The government agency also interviewees NASA officials and industry representatives. The challenges to the Artemis programme An ambitious schedule The Human Landing System program is aiming to complete its development in 79 months, which is 13 months shooter than the average for major NASA projects. But this is unrealistic because of the complexity of the project. This is why the GAO estimates that Artemis 3 is likely to occur early in 2027. Delays The Human Landing System has already had eight of 13 key events delayed by atleast six months as of September 2023. Two of these events have been delayed to 2025, the year the lander should have launched according to initial plans. These delays were partly caused by the Orbital Flight Test, which is designed to demonstrate some features of the launch vehicle and lander configuration in flight. That test was delayed by seven months to April 2023. It was then terminated early when the test vehicle deviated from its expected trajectory and began to tumble. A lot of work left There is also a lot of complex technical work that SpaceX must do to support the Artemis 3 mission. This includes proving the ability to store and transfer propellant while in orbit. An important aspect of the Elon Musk-led company’s plans to land astronauts on the moon for Artemis 3 involves multiple tankers that will transfer propellant to a “depot” in space before transferring it to the human landing system. The company has made limited progress in this regard.
