NASA’s Artemis moon mission pushed back to 2025 as $1bn lunar suits not ready

Space agency will spend more than $1bn developing next generation suits

NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine (L) welcomes Advance space suit engineer, Kristine Davis (R), to the stage during a press conference displaying the next generation of space suits as parts of the Artemis program in Washington, DC on October 15, 2019 (AFP via Getty Images)

NASA’s Artemis moon mission has been pushed back to 2025 because of difficulties in producing lunar suits for the astronauts.

The space agency had hoped to return to the moon in late 2024, but a string of issues have made that timeline unworkable, according to a report from the Office of the Inspector General.

The agency will have spent more than $1bn on developing the suits by the time the mission gets underway, according to the report.

The report, which says NASA’s goal is having two space suits ready by November 2024, also said that the Covid-19 pandemic and funding had contributed to the mission’s delay.

The 2024 deadline had been insisted up by Donald Trump during his one-term presidency.

“Given these anticipated delays in spacesuit development, a lunar landing in late 2024 as NASA currently plans is not feasible,” the report states.

And it added: “Given the integration requirements, the suits would not be ready for flight until April 2025 at the earliest.”

Earlier reports had also highlighted “significant delays” in the development of things such as the Space Launch System rocket and Orion crew capsules.

“Moreover, delays related to lunar lander development ... will also preclude a 2024 landing,” the OIG said.

The first Artemis rocket launch, which would send an unpiloted Orion capsule around the moon and back, is expected to take place by the end of 2021.

The second Artemis flight, scheduled for 2023, would send four astronauts on a test flight around the moon.

The new lunar suits are being designed for use on the space station, the moon’s surface and on a mission to Mars.

They will allow for more mobility and better communications and allow astronauts to work inside them for up to nine hours.

The Artemis programme will see the first woman and the first person of colour land on the moon, and it will be NASA’s first trip back there since Apollo 17 in 1972.

The goal was also to establish a “sustainable presence on the Moon to prepare for missions to Mars”.

Artemis was introduced in 2017 during the Trump administration, and was endorsed by Joe Biden after he won the White House.

In April 2021, NASA chose Elon Musk’s SpaceX to develop, build and operate the lunar lander that will be involved in the project.

Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos has appealed the $2.9bn contract handed out to his rival, but that was rejected by the federal government.

Artemis will see a huge new rocket launch four astronauts aboard an Orion space capsule to the moon’s orbit.

The SpaceX lander would then take two astronauts to the moon’s surface, where they would spend a week exploring before returning to Orion in lunar orbit and heading back to Earth.