United States: NASA’s Artemis 3 mission, which will land astronauts on the Moon, will not happen at least until 2027, according to the report.
The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report that details the challenges NASA is having with the programs.
As per the report, “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.”
For the report, GAO evaluated NASA data, documentation, and policy. It analysed contract documentation, contractor risk charts and technology maturation plans.
The goal of the Human Landing System program is to finish its development in 79 months, which is 13 months shorter than the typical time frame for major NASA projects. This is why the GAO estimates that Artemis 3 will probably happen in early 2027.
Eight out of the thirteen major events for the Human Landing System have already been delayed by at least six months as of September 2023. Two of them have been rescheduled until 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.
Additionally, there is a lot of complex technical work that SpaceX must do to support the Artemis 3 mission. The Artemis program was started in 2017 with the goal of sending astronauts back to the Moon and possibly Mars.
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