NASA official Jared Isaacman confirmed that the 2027 Artemis III mission, which was slated to put people back on the moon for the first time in decades, is going to get a small detour.
Instead of a moon landing, Artemis III will now stay in low Earth orbit. The goal is to test the equipment, like Axiom Space’s new suits, without the inconvenience of being 238,900 miles away from a repair shop if things go south. This sounds like a stalling tactic; that’s because it is, and for good reason.
The agency is haunted by the spirits of its hardware failures past. Artemis II, the planned crewed flyby, is already swamped with delays.
After two disastrous dress rehearsals in February revealed leaks in the Space Launch System rocket, the mission was rolled back for repairs. Now that’s looking like an April 1 launch date at the earliest, assuming the rocket doesn’t spring another leak by March.
Isaacman argued that jumping straight from a flyby to a landing was never a “pathway to success.” By shifting the actual landing attempts to 2028 with Artemis IV and V, NASA is choosing safety over the optics of dangerous space race moral victories.
The grand vision of it all remains a permanent lunar base, and potentially inspiring a whole new generation of kids to become astronauts again after once-glamorized professions like astronaut and fireman were replaced by YouTuber as the primary career aspirations of young children. Somehow, becoming an astronaut seems more down-to-earth than a kid wanting to become a Minecraft YouTuber when they grow up.
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