As the Artemis Mission has Been Postponed, Thanks To Bezos, China May Beat US to the Moon

The long-awaited visit of the first female, as well as an individual of color on the lunar surface, will have to be postponed. The latest arrival of NASA boots on the surface of the moon through the Artemis mission will not take effect in 2024 as projected due to delays resulting from disputes with Blue Origin, as well as numerous considerations, including the pandemic, stated NASA Administrator Bill Nelson on Tuesday. “We’ve lost about 7 months in this lawsuit, and that has certainly postponed the first human landing to no sooner than 2025,” Nelson stated at a news conference.

And, according to Nelson, the China space program is growing competent in putting taikonauts on the lunar surface considerably sooner than initially anticipated, but he did not specify the original forecast. Additionally, it’s very probable that China may arrive on the lunar surface before the US astronauts return. “We’re up against a very ambitious and good Chinese space program,” he explained. “This has occurred in the past 5 years, and we’ve seen them do quite a few things.” They have announced that they will go to the moon’s southern pole.

NASA and I think the US government, feel that America should be the first to return to the lunar surface after more than a half-century’s absence. We will be as proactive as we can be while being safe as well as technically viable to beat our opponents with footprints on the lunar surface.” The Blue Origin lawsuit stems from a decision made by NASA earlier this year. Elon Musk as well as Jeff Bezos both want their firms to be at the heart of NASA’s ambitions to return people to the lunar surface. However, NASA only has funding for one of these, and it chose Musk’s SpaceX to create the manned landing spacecraft mechanism.

Blue Origin, Bezos’ space endeavor, has been fighting that selection ever since, claiming that NASA unlawfully favored SpaceX and that the space program would be served better by financing both SpaceX as well as Blue Origin’s ambitions to create moon-landing spacecraft. The Court of Federal Claims decided in favor of NASA on Friday, which implies that the Artemis program may continue. During the dispute, NASA was prohibited by law from communicating with SpaceX about their construction of a human landing mechanism for Artemis astronauts. Nevertheless, SpaceX has proceeded to build the probe without receiving any funding from NASA.

“However, our crew still requires time to sort through the intricacies,” Nelson explained. And, there is still much work to be done. Other problems contributing to the 2025 postponement include a shortage of funding for the construction of a human landing system, as well as “the Trump administration’s aim of 2024 human landing was not anchored in technological viability,” according to Nelson.