NASA's Artemis II mission, which will send a crew of four astronauts on a flyby around the Moon, has been delayed. Originally targeted for late 2024, the launch is now scheduled for no earlier than September 2025. The agency announced the schedule adjustment to allow teams to work through development challenges associated with the program, including issues with the Orion spacecraft's heat shield, electrical system, and valves on the crew module.
The mission will be the first crewed flight test of NASA's foundational deep space exploration systems: the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion spacecraft. The four astronauts—NASA's Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and the Canadian Space Agency's Jeremy Hansen—will not land on the Moon but will journey around it, testing systems in a deep space environment before future Artemis missions attempt a lunar landing.
Artemis II is a critical step toward NASA's goal of establishing a long-term presence on the Moon for science and exploration, which includes landing the first woman and first person of color on the lunar surface. The program is also seen as a proving ground for technologies needed for future human missions to Mars.
