“Returning to the Moon as quickly and safely as possible is an agency priority. However, with the recent lawsuit and other factors, the first human landing under Artemis is likely no earlier than 2025,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said.
With its Artemis 3 mission, the agency plans to land the first woman on the Moon, according to a press release.
This announcement comes after a federal judge rejected a lawsuit from Blue Origin, the space company owned by Jeff Bezos, against the United States government, which challenged NASA’s choice to award a $2.9 billion lunar lander contract Elon Musk’s company, SpaceX, Reuters reported.
The final ruling allows the agency to continue its collaboration with SpaceX on a lander contract.
“We’re pleased with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims’ thorough evaluation of NASA’s source selection process for the human landing system (HLS), and we have already resumed conversations with SpaceX. It’s clear we’re both eager to get back to work together and establish a new timeline for our initial lunar demonstration missions,” Nelson said.
In addition to complications with the lawsuit, lack of funding from Congress regarding the HLS competition and the COVID-19 pandemic, NASA also said that the Trump Administration’s landing goal of 2024 was not “technically feasible.”
“Going forward, NASA is planning for at least 10 Moon landings in the future, and the agency needs significant increases in funding for future lander competition, starting with the 2023 budget,” Nelson said.
Artemis 3 is the last part of a program which is set to begin in February of next year.
The first mission, Artemis 1, will launch the Orion spacecraft on the Space Launch System without humans on board and will fly around the moon for three weeks to test its systems.
During Artemis 2, which is now planned in 2024, astronauts will fly around the moon.
The Artemis program will also have the first person of color land on the moon, according to NASA, though the it is unclear if this will occur in the third mission or in a later one.
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