In the first major Artemis update provided under the Biden-Harris Administration, NASA leadership discussed Tuesday the challenges and progress of America’s lunar exploration plans and reiterated a long-term commitment to exploring the Moon and sending astronauts to Mars.
The update follows a judge’s recent decision to uphold NASA’s selection of SpaceX to develop and demonstrate a modern human lunar lander for returning astronauts to the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson spearheaded the conversation, laying out the path forward for early Artemis missions that will pave the way for lunar surface missions.
“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. “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.”
Prior to that surface mission, NASA is focused on the Artemis I uncrewed and Artemis II crewed flight tests around the Moon. Nelson announced the Orion spacecraft development cost now is $9.3 billion from fiscal year 2012 through the first crewed flight test no later than May 2024. The...
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