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Nasa’s proposed mission to land astronauts on the Moon is “unlikely to occur in 2025” as is currently planned, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) has said.
The Artemis programme was formally established in 2017, during the Trump administration, and launched its first uncrewed mission in November last year using the long-delayed Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.
Artemis II was planned to take place late next year; it would have been the first scheduled crewed mission of the Artemis programme and would have seen four astronauts perform a flyby of the Moon and return to Earth. Artemis III was planned as the first crewed Moon landing mission, with a proposed December 2025 launch.
But the GAO report found that while Nasa and its contractors have made progress, they still face multiple challenges with the development of the Human Landing System and the space suits.
The Human Landing System programme is aiming to complete its development – from project start to launch – in 79 months, which is 13 months shorter than average for Nasa’s major projects, the report said. However, the complexity of the project as a whole means it is “unrealistic” that work will be completed in this shorter time frame.
There is “significant work” remaining to resolve design challenges around Nasa’s modernised space suits. For example, the original design did not provide the minimum amount of emergency life support needed for the Artemis III mission. As a result, representatives from Axiom – the space firm developing the suit – said they may need to redesign certain aspects of the space suit, which could cause mission delays.
There are also concerns that SpaceX still needs to complete a “significant amount” of complex technical work to support the 2025 lunar landing, including developing the ability to store and transfer propellant while in orbit. A critical aspect of SpaceX’s plan for the Moon landing is launching multiple tankers that will transfer propellant to a depot in space before transferring that propellant to the Human Landing System.
“Nasa and its contractors made progress since our last report on the Artemis missions, but they are still facing challenges with developing the lunar lander and space suits,” the GAO said.
“In the course of our work, Nasa stated it was reviewing the schedule for developing the lunar lander,” it added.
