Nasa overhauls Artemis mission amid setbacks in moon race with China
The US space agency will essentially swap a planned moon landing for an additional test mission staged closer to Earth
Nasa is shaking up its Artemis mission to the moon, cancelling a multibillion-dollar Boeing upgrade to the centrepiece SLS rocket and slotting in a test flight closer to Earth as the programme remains beset by delays and cost overruns.
The changes announced on Friday mean that Nasa is essentially swapping the actual moon landing for an additional test mission staged closer to Earth – while insisting the 2028 deadline for a lunar touchdown remains unchanged.
Artemis III, which was supposed to be the moon landing and is now pulled forward to 2027, will see Boeing’s Space Launch System rocket launch a crew aboard Lockheed Martin’s Orion capsule.
The craft will then dock with one or two of the commercially supplied landers in Earth orbit, Nasa said. Artemis IV will land a crew on the moon a year later.
Nasa said the goal of the changed sequence is to fly more frequently to counteract one of the biggest criticisms of Artemis: the slow development pace of its SLS rocket.
The space agency has been preparing to launch the rocket in coming weeks, with a crew of four set to fly around the moon, though that mission is now delayed by weeks and potentially months because of technical issues.