NASA delays astronaut moon landing to 2026 amid spacecraft 'challenges'

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By Joey Roulette

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — NASA on Tuesday added more delays to its Artemis moon program, scheduling for 2026 its first astronaut lunar landing in half a century while spacecraft from Elon Musk's SpaceX, Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) and other contractors face development challenges.

The U.S. space agency's first two Artemis missions involving astronauts were each pushed back nearly a year in delays designed «to give the Artemis teams more time to work through the challenges,» NASA administrator Bill Nelson told reporters in a news conference.

Artemis 3, the first crewed moon landing under the program using SpaceX's Starship, is now scheduled for September 2026, previously planned for late 2025, NASA said.

The precursor to that moon landing mission, Artemis 2, was also delayed, now planned for September 2025, NASA said. Artemis 2 involves four astronauts flying the Lockheed-built Orion capsule around the moon and back. Reuters reported on Monday the moon mission delays were imminent.

The new schedule «acknowledges the very real development challenges that have been experienced by our industry partners,» said Amit Kshatriya, head of NASA's moon and Mars exploration strategy.

NASA astronauts' journey to the moon will be a relay among multiple spacecraft in space, initially launching off Earth aboard Orion then transferring in space to SpaceX's Starship system to go to and from the lunar surface.

Issues and investigations around Orion's heat shield, the shell that protects astronauts from the heat of re-entering Earth's atmosphere, and the spacecraft's batteries and electrical system are among the reasons for the delays, Kshatriya said.

Orion first launched to space in 2022 without people aboard in NASA's Artemis