NASA's Moon Landing Gets Pushed Back Yet Again

Expect Delays

NASA's efforts to return astronauts to the Moon are facing even more delays.

The space agency's outgoing administrator Bill Nelson announced today that the upcoming crewed Artemis II mission around the Moon and back won't take place until April 2026. Meanwhile, Artemis III — the first scheduled return to the lunar surface — has been delayed from 2026 to mid-2027.

It's only the latest in a long series of delays for NASA's Artemis Moon program, which was established during president-elect Donald Trump's first administration, and shows yet again that the agency is facing considerable headwinds.

It's also a somewhat anti-climatic development, given that Nelson is set to leave the agency when Trump returns to the White House in just over a month's time.

Nelson will be replaced by billionaire tech founder and SpaceX space tourist Jared Isaacman, who was appointed to the job earlier this week. Isaacman will now be in charge of picking up the pieces, and presumably ensuring that NASA's grand plans to return to the Moon stay on track.

Crack at It

NASA's Artemis II mission will be the first involving a crew boarding its Orion capsule, which is currently slated to be launched into space with the help of the agency's enormous and extremely expensive Space Launch System rocket.

The agency has already successfully sent the capsule around the Moon and back without a crew on board during its inaugural Artemis mission in 2022. However, its return left major scars in its heat shield, triggering a lengthy investigation.

During its announcement today, NASA singled out these concerns as one of the reasons behind the most recent delays. The heat shield in particular has already been the source of several delays for NASA's Artemis II mission.

In response, Nelson announced today that the design of the heat shield will remain the same for Artemis II, but its trajectory will change to ensure it won't crack due to excessive heat during reentry, a unanimous decision among NASA officials.

But whether NASA's plans for its mission will remain the same over the next couple of months remains uncertain, especially with Isaacman in charge.

Most chaotically, there's chatter at the space agency about abandoning the troubled Space Launch System entirely — which, given Elon Musk's newly chummy relationship with Trump, could open up the possibility of launching entire Artemis missions using SpaceX's yet-unfinished Starship.

More on Artemis: NASA Keeping Issue With Moon Rocket a Secret

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