NASA postpones plan to return humans to the Moon by 2024

NASA has published a new audit that casts doubt on its plans to return humans to the Moon by 2024.

The audit reads: "Delays related to the development of the Moon lander and the objections surrounding the recent tendering and awarding of the lander contract have precluded plans to land on the Moon in March. year 2024".

However, billionaire Elon Musk was quick to respond to NASA when he tweeted: "SpaceX can solve the delay in developing space suits for traveling on the Moon if needed." .

NASA only mentioned that arbitration of contract disputes in the Manned Landing System (HLS) program with companies like Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin could be part of the reason for delaying plans to the Moon.

NASA's next-generation suit is unlikely to arrive until April 2025.

NASA originally aimed to produce two next-generation spacesuits called Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Units (xEMU) by 2024, but the plan is in danger of falling apart.

Delays in planned design, verification, and testing forced delivery times back by about 20 months, in addition to one ISS Demo suit, two qualifying suits, and one Sun suit. other moon.

NASA attributed this delay to funding shortages, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and technical challenges. With the above difficulties, the spacesuits will have to wait until at least April 2025 to be completed.

NASA's audit also said it had no contingency plans as of June of this year, and warned that further delays to key components of the Space Launch System and HLS would prevent a landing. Moon in 2024.

But as SpaceX CEO Elon Musk suggested, SpaceX could become NASA's backup plan if the agency accepts his proposal.

Sharing on tweet, Elon Musk wrote: "SpaceX can do it if needed". This quote refers to building spacesuits to help NASA get back on track, or at least minimize delays in planning.

While NASA's next-generation spacesuit designs are in development, the agency said any design must support the Artemis mission, the Human Landing System (HLS) of NASA. SpaceX.

At the same time, NASA is struggling with the balance between HLS and ISS because the HLS Program needs the xEMU space suit for the Moon landing in 2024 but the ISS program needs the suits to replace the suit. The 45-year-old EMU is currently in use on the station.

NASA further emphasized that, while the path to the Moon by NASA and its partners is still on the way, one thing is for sure, without the next-generation spacesuits, the continued use of space suits. An aging base on the ISS will force the agency to incur costly maintenance fees, increasing the risk to astronauts.

In other words, future NASA space missions have been struggling in development. Without further help or funding from private aerospace companies such as Elon Musk's SpaceX, the plan is certain to be delayed.

Jessica Tanner

Update 17 August 2021