NASA’s Artemis III moon-landing mission faces delays

On Dec 4, 2023

The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO), an independent, nonpartisan “congressional watchdog”, has reported that NASA’s Artemis 3 mission will only land humans on the Moon in 2027; two years after NASA’s stated goal.

“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,” the GAO said.

The Artemis program was started in 2017 with the goal of sending astronauts back to the Moon and possibly Mars but has faced delays since its inception.

NASA launched the Artemis I rocket mission in 2022 and has maintained it intends to send a crew on Artemis II around the Moon in late 2024.

The Artemis II crew, from left: pilot Victor Glover, commander Reid Wiseman and mission specialists Jeremy Hansen and Christina Koch. Together, they will become the first people to fly to the moon in more than 50 years. (NASA/Robert Markowitz)

The results of the 2024 mission would impact any decisions for the Moon landing mission in 2025, but some government officials said that the NASA timeline is too ambitious and that the agency is likely on track to miss crucial targets.

“The complexity of human spaceflight suggests that it is unrealistic to expect the program to complete development more than a year faster than the average for NASA major projects, the majority of which are not human spaceflight projects,” authors of the GAO report stated.

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For the report, GAO assessed NASA data, documentation and policy. It analysed contract documentation, contractor risk charts and technology maturation plans. The government agency also interviewees NASA officials and industry representatives.

The report highlighted a lot of remaining work by both SpaceX and Axiom, who are principal contractors of the Artemis program.

A critical part of the mission is considered to be SpaceX’s Starship rocket, which has been under development in Texas.

The private space company owned by CEO Elon Musk has yet to successfully finish a rocket test that proves the spacecraft is capable of reaching orbit and returning to Earth.

Another sticking point, according to the GAO, is the design of spacesuits by Axiom. The original suit design reportedly did not provide the amount of emergency life support needed for the Artemis III mission.

This has caused engineers to go back to the drawing board to see if there is a way to encapsulate more oxygen, which could result in delays to the overall mission.

NASA leadership said in July that it was reviewing the Human Landing System schedule and would adjust the launch date as necessary.

If any of the contractors are unable to satisfy NASA requirements, it remains unclear whether the space agency is in a position to adopt an alternative plan in order to successfully complete a launch, landing and return.