NASA will trade the Artemis mission that was expected to land astronauts on the moon for a new plan intended to increase launch frequency of the agency’s mega rocket.
At a news briefing on Friday, NASA administrator Jared Isaacman described a vast overhaul to the moon-to-Mars program. The changes scrap the Artemis III lunar landing and instead make it a flight in low-Earth orbit for a crew to practice meeting up with either the SpaceX or Blue Origin-built lunar landers — or, perhaps, both.
Those efforts also will impact the U.S. space agency’s timeline for the future Artemis missions, moving up the revised Artemis III flight to the middle of 2027, which could make way for Artemis IV and Artemis V at the beginning and end of 2028. Under the new direction, Artemis IV would be the first mission to put astronaut boots on the lunar surface.
The sweeping revisions to the agency’s program came during an update on repairs to the Space Launch System rocket, which will launch Artemis II, a 10-day lunar flyby mission with a crew, as early as April.
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