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NASA’s Artemis mission to orbit moon pushed back to 2026


NASA's plans to orbit the moon and to eventually conduct another landing mission have been delayed again due to issues with the Orion crew capsule.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced on Thursday new delays in the U.S. space agency’s Artemis program to return astronauts to the moon for the first time since 1972, pushing back the next two planned missions including the lunar landing. During its blazing atmospheric reentry, heat became trapped inside the Orion heatshield’s outer layer, causing cracks and raising concerns after the mission about the capsule’s future models. The follow-up Artemis II mission, a flight carrying astronauts around the moon in Orion but without a landing, has experienced delays, including one announced by Nelson in January pushing back its time table to September 2025.

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