The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on Thursday announced delays in its Artemis moon exploration program.
NASA is now targeting April 2026 for Artemis II, the first crewed mission, and mid-2027 for Artemis III, a moon landing mission exploring the lunar South Pole region.
The agency previously set September 2025 for Artemis II, and September 2026 for Artemis III.
The delay came after NASA concluded an examination of a technical problem happened during the agency's Artemis I mission in 2022.
The Artemis I flight test, carrying the Orion spacecraft, was launched on Nov. 16, 2022, from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Artemis I mission was the first integrated flight test of the agency's deep space exploration systems: the Orion spacecraft, SLS rocket, and ground systems.
During the mission, the Orion spacecraft experienced an unexpected char loss across its heat shield, according to NASA.
Extensive analysis, including from more than 100 tests at unique facilities across the country, determined the heat shield on Artemis I did not allow for enough of the gases generated inside a material called Avcoat to escape, which caused some of the material to crack and break off.
Engineers already are assembling and integrating the Orion spacecraft for Artemis III based on lessons learned from Artemis I and implementing enhancements to how heat shields for crewed returns from lunar landing missions are manufactured, to achieve uniformity and consistent permeability, said NASA.
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