NASA announced updates to its Artemis Moon missions, which will delay the Artemis II crewed flight to April 2026 and Artemis III to 2027.
The delays allow time to address issues with Orion spacecraft systems, including its heat shield, which experienced unexpected material loss during Artemis I's re-entry, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said in an official statement.
Engineers identified the cause as insufficient gas escaping in the heat shield material, leading to much needed modifications for Artemis II and III.
Artemis II will be a 10-day test flight around the Moon, involving NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
The purpose of the mission is to gather critical data about Orion's life support and manual flying systems for future lunar and Mars missions.
NASA's Artemis campaign focuses on sustainable Moon exploration and eventually human missions to Mars.
NASA is still trying to determine why an astronaut who spent an unplanned extra two months on the International Space Station remains hospitalized in Florida after returning to Earth, reported Futurism.
In June, NASA awarded Elon Musk's SpaceX a $843 million contract to bring the International Space Station out of orbit in 2030.
