Delaying Crewed Moon Mission Was Right Decision, Artemis 2 Astronaut Explains

(Photo: Wikimedia Commons/NASA)
Delaying Crewed Moon Mission Was Right Decision, Artemis 2 Astronaut Explains

NASA's upcoming crewed moon mission has been delayed. There was no concrete explanation behind the pushback, but one astronaut suggested it was the right decision.

Delaying Crewed Moon Mission Is The Right Choice

Artemis 2 astronaut Jeremy Hansen with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) stated that he and his three fellow NASA astronauts support the agency's decision to postpone its round-the-moon trip by at least nine months until September 2025.

"We look at many risks, but when you have learned something that you didn't know - and you realize there's there's something that you can do about it and to learn more - it just makes sense to delay," Hansen explained in an interview at CSA headquarters Monday (Feb. 5).

NASA provided numerous justifications for delaying Artemis 2 to 2025 and Artemis 3, the first moon landing mission, to 2026, one year later. Among these were issues with the Orion spacecraft's heat shield, designed to defend occupants during re-entry, and electrical malfunctions in the abort system, which shields occupants if the Space Launch System rocket fails during moon landing.

NASA considers Artemis 2 a flagship project; in April 2023, almost all astronaut corps gathered around the agency's Johnson Space Center to commemorate the crew announcement.

NASA commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover (the first person of color on a lunar mission), and mission specialist Christina Koch (the first woman) accompany Hansen, a mission specialist and the first non-American to leave low Earth orbit.

The four staff members have had conversations with Tom Hanks, Vice President Kamala Harris, U.S. President Joe Biden, and teams like the McLaren Formula One drivers to expand the agency's reach.

However, pressure comes with publicity, particularly now that Congressmen have brought up the possibility of a China-led race to the moon in the wake of the postponement. Hansen recognized that the delays would also result in higher expenses and government budgets.

"It takes courage to make the right decision," Hansen said, but "in this case, this one was very clearly the right decision. There are concrete things that we know we will use this time for."

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NASA Moon Exploration in 2024

With the November launch of Artemis 2, which will place four people in lunar orbit, NASA is getting ready to embark on its most complex and risky project in a long time. Nobody has been farther into the solar system than the lunar flyby mission in more than 50 years.

It is a historic accomplishment because no human has gone beyond Earth's local orbit since the space race of the 20th century, during the Cold War.

This mission will circumnavigate the moon, going close to its surface but never landing. It will build on the successful unmanned test flight of the Orion spacecraft and NASA's Space Launch System rocket in late 2022.

If Artemis 2 is successful, it will open the door for Artemis 3, which aims to send humans to the moon for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972.

Launched on Oct. 20, 1970, and returning to Earth a week later, Zoomd 8 was the final successful lunar flyby. It is frequently denoted as L-1 No. 14. It was the last circumlunar spacecraft built as part of the Zond program in the Soviet Union.