Nasa Revamps Plan For Troubled Artemis Moon Programme

NEW YORK, Feb 28 (Bernama-dpa) -- NASA is completely overhauling its crisis-ridden Artemis moon programme, the United States (US) space agency's chief administrator Jared Isaacman said on Friday, reported German Press Agency (dpa).

The Artemis 3 mission, which was originally intended to land a crew on the moon no earlier than 2028, is now slated to launch next year, but will not land on the moon, Isaacman told a press briefing.

Instead, the Orion capsule will dock with one or two lunar landers in space during this mission.

Additionally, there may even be two moon landing attempts in 2028 – Artemis 4 and Artemis 5.

The delayed Artemis 2 mission is still scheduled to launch as soon as possible, aiming to bring humans close to the moon for the first time in more than half a century.

US astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman, along with their Canadian colleague Jeremy Hansen, are due to fly around the moon during the approximately ten-day mission.

However, due to technical problems with the rocket system, this mission is postponed, and a new possible launch date has not yet been set.

The last time US astronauts walked on the moon was in 1972.

--BERNAMA-dpa