NASA revamps Artemis moon landing program

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) – NASA said Friday it's adding an extra moon mission by Artemis astronauts before attempting a high-risk lunar landing with a crew. The shake-up in the flight lineup and push for a faster pace came just two days after NASA's new moon rocket returned to its hangar for more repairs and a safety panel warned the space agency to scale back its overly ambitious goals for humanity's first lunar landing in more than half a century. Artemis II — a lunar fly-around by four astronauts — is off until at least April because of rocket problems. The follow-up mission — Artemis III — had been targeting a landing near the moon's south pole by another pair of astronauts a year or two later. But with long gaps between flights and concern growing over the readiness of a lunar lander and moonwalking suits, NASA's new administrator Jared Isaacman announced that mission would instead focus on launching a lunar lander into orbit around Earth for docking practice by Orion capsule astronauts in 2027. The new plan calls for a moon landing — potentially even two moon landings — by astronauts in 2028. "This is going to be our pathway back to the moon," Isaacman said. The first Artemis test flight was plagued by hydrogen fuel leaks and helium flow problems before liftoff without a crew in 2022, the same things that struck the Space Launch System rocket on the pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center earlier this month. Isaacman stressed that "it should be incredibly obvious" that three years between flights is unacceptable and that he'd like to get it down to one year or even less. During NASA's storied Apollo program, he said, astronauts' first flight to the moon was followed by two more missions before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon. What's more, he said, the Apollo moonshots followed one another in quick succession, just as the earlier Projects Mercury and Gemini had rapid flight rates, sometimes coming just a few months apart. "No one here at NASA forgot their history books," Issacman said. "We shouldn't be comfortable with the current cadence. We should be getting back to basics and doing what we know works." To pick up the pace and reduce risk, NASA will standardize Space Launch System moon rockets moving forward, Isaacman said. The Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel recommended this week that NASA revise its objectives for Artemis III "given the demanding mission goals." It's urgent the space agency do that, the panel said, if the United States hopes to safely return astronauts to the moon. Isaacman said the revised Artemis flight plan addresses the panel's concerns and is supported by industry and the Trump administration.