Citing “crew safety,” NASA delays upcoming Artemis missions by about a year
arstechnica.com
"We must be realistic."

"Chief among the agency’s concerns is the development of Starship. SpaceX must not only demonstrate the capability to fly the vehicle safely, the company must master the ability to transfer and store cryogenic fuel in orbit, so that a Starship can launch into orbit, be refueled, and then fly out to lunar orbit to rendezvous with Orion.

Before the Artemis III mission, SpaceX will likely fly dozens of Starship test flights; the campaign to fuel a Starship in orbit alone will take about 10 tanker flights, said Jessica Jensen, a senior engineer at the company. SpaceX must also demonstrate an uncrewed test landing on the Moon and an unprecedented launch of Starship from the lunar surface using cryogenic fuels—liquid oxygen and methane."

  • AutoTL;DRBEnglish
    1•8 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    Citing “crew safety” as the agency’s chief priority, NASA officials outlined a new schedule for the Artemis lunar program on Tuesday.

    The roughly one-year delay for each of the next three missions came as little surprise, given the significant amount of work left to be done before astronauts can return to the Moon later this decade.

    But that is no longer tenable while the space agency works on several issues related to the Orion vehicle, Free and other officials said.

    Amit Kshatriya, a NASA engineer who oversees the “Moon to Mars” program, identified three major areas being worked ahead of Artemis II.

    SpaceX must also demonstrate an uncrewed test landing on the Moon and an unprecedented launch of Starship from the lunar surface using cryogenic fuels—liquid oxygen and methane.

    In response, Free said he firmly believed the schedule was “realistic” and emphasized that NASA’s contractors agreed to meet those dates.

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