More Delays: Artemis II Slips to April 2026, Artemis III to Mid-2027

NASA’s program to return American astronauts to the Moon is encountering more delays. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced today that the second flight, Artemis II, is now planned for April 2026 instead of September 2025, and Artemis III for mid-2027 instead of September 2026. Nelson nonetheless is optimistic the incoming Trump Administration will continue Artemis now that it is on a firm path forward to get Americans back on the Moon before China gets there.

The postponements are due in part to the time it took to determine why the heat shield on the first flight, Artemis I, two years ago did not perform as expected. NASA said in October it had diagnosed the root cause of the unanticipated “char loss” on the Orion capsule after it reentered Earth’s atmosphere and landed in the ocean. The heat shield is made of ablative material and some is supposed to burn off, but not to that extent.

The agency declined to reveal the root cause in October, but did today. Basically heat built up in the outer layer of the Avcoat ablative material, which led to gases getting trapped inside the heat shield and internal pressure building up. That led to cracking and uneven shedding of the outer layer as the spacecraft followed a “skip return” trajectory, dipping in and out of the atmosphere.

Amit Kshatriya, NASA Deputy Associate Administrator for the Moon to Mars program, explained they need to change the permeability of the Avcoat for future flights, but for Artemis II they will proceed with what they have. Instead of changing the material, they will change the environment that the Orion capsule experiences. Next time it will use a less stressful trajectory even though the landing will not be as precise.

Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman acknowledged that “delays are agonizing,” but what he and his three crewmates — NASA’s Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and the Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen — wanted was to know the root cause and “we took the time” to find it. It was a “very, very open process” and “the crew never felt like there was a door closed to us.”

The heat shield is not the only challenge for Artemis II. Kshatriya noted they are still working issues with the life support system as well as the electrical system batteries during abort operations. Sufficient progress is being made that they feel confident in the April 2026 launch date, however.

Nelson was upbeat about the status of Artemis and NASA’s future in general as his term comes to an end. He said he’d called Jared Isaacman yesterday to congratulate him on being Trump’s choice to run NASA and invited him to visit. The President-elect’s team has not yet sent an Agency Review Team or “landing party” to begin transition discussions.

Considerable speculation is swirling about the future of Artemis under a second Trump term. Although it was a Trump initiative during his first term, he and his close advisor Elon Musk are Mars enthusiasts. Musk also is a long-time critic of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, largely because it is not reusable like the Starship system Musk is developing.

However, Musk’s SpaceX is one of NASA’s contractors on Artemis. A version of Starship will serve as the Human Landing System (HLS) to ferry astronauts from lunar orbit down to the surface and back for Artemis III and Artemis IV. The question is whether Starship might replace SLS or if the current Artemis architecture might be scrapped entirely in favor of something that can be implemented more quickly.

Nelson thinks not.

First of all, there is one human-rated spacecraft that is flying, and it has already flown beyond the Moon, farther than any other human-rated spacecraft and that’s the SLS combined with Orion. Secondly, this is a partnership. It’s a commercial partnership. It’s an international partnership. … We’re right at 50 nations having  joined the Artemis Accords, which is a common-sense declaration of the peaceful uses of outer space. … I don’t see the concern … that you’re suddenly going to have Starship take over everything.”

He may have let the cat out of the bag that another country is about to join the Artemis Accords since only 48 have been announced so far. [UPDATE, December 9: NASA just announced that Austria and Panama will sign on December 11.]

Time is of the essence, however, if the United States wants to return to the Moon before China sends taikonauts there. China is planning to do that by 2030.

Artemis II is a crewed test flight around the the Moon. The crew will fly a free-return trajectory that would return them to Earth even if Orion’s propulsion system failed. They won’t orbit or land on the Moon. The first astronaut landing since Apollo 17 in 1972 will take place on Artemis III, which requires SpaceX’s Starship HLS and Axiom Space’s lunar spacesuits, which are other pacing items.

Nelson stressed the new date for Artemis III, mid-2027, is still well in advance of China’s plan, but he is personally meeting with the heads of the companies building key Artemis components — SpaceX and Blue Origin (landers), Boeing (SLS), Lockheed Martin (Orion) and Axiom Space (lunar spacesuits) — as well as the European Space Agency (Orion’s Service Module, which includes the propulsion system), to drive home that point. “We must have a shared sense of urgency among all of these partners, and I think we have that.”

On the other hand, he added, even if China gets there before we return, there is no indication they plan to land crews at the Moon’s South Pole, Artemis’s destination. “It is vital for us to land on the South Pole so that we do not cede that lunar South Pole to the Chinese.”

 

This article has been updated.