NASA is preparing for the Artemis III mission, the first planned crewed mission to the moon in decades. NASA has now officially delayed its timeline for the Artemis III mission, now aiming to land the first woman on the moon alongside other Americans in 2025. The agency has blamed the unrealistic 2024 timeline, which the Trump administration moved up from 2028, and its legal struggles with Blue Origin.
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According to NASA administrator Bill Nelson, “the Trump administration’s target of 2024 human landing was not grounded in technical feasibility.” In addition, Nelson cited the Blue Origin lawsuit against the agency as another factor in the delay. NASA had chosen SpaceX to build the capsule that will take astronauts back to the moon, but Blue Origin is suing NASA claiming that their proposal wasn’t given a shot in the procurement process.
NASA lost almost seven months of work on the lander as a result, which had cast doubts on the 2024 landing even before Nelson made his announcement. NASA awarded the $2.9 billion contract to SpaceX back in April this year. In the past, NASA would work with multiple contractors on projects like these but opted just for SpaceX this time.
Many believe it is because Blue Origin’s bid in the process was way too ambitious, coming in at $5.9 billion. However, Jeff Bezos’s space company is suing as it was never given the opportunity to adjust its original bid. The Federal Court of Claims ultimately ruled against Blue Origin a few days ago, dismissing its claims that NASA ignored “key flight safety requirements” when it awarded SpaceX the lunar lander contract.
Nelson’s announcement comes shortly after NASA moved the non-crewed Artemis I flight test launch from this year to February 2022, assuming everything goes to plan before then.
