NASA announced today adjustments to its lunar exploration program Artemis, and confirmed that it will add a mission before the crewed moon landing, and that the landing itself will be moved from 2027 to 2028. Additionally, in a post on the social network X, NASA stated that “we are going to increase the cadence of the Artemis missions to take humans back to the Moon and maintain a presence there.” According to the revised plan, the Artemis III mission will focus on testing systems and operational capabilities in a low Earth orbit in 2027 as preparation for the lunar descent mission Artemis IV in 2028, NASA reported in a press release. The Artemis III mission is expected to include a rendezvous and docking with one or both of the commercial lunar modules being developed by SpaceX and Blue Origin, in-space tests of the docked vehicles, integrated verification of life support, communications, and propulsion systems, as well as tests with the new suits for extravehicular activity, the agency indicated. “By standardizing the vehicle configuration, increasing the pace of flight, and advancing toward our goals in a logical and measured way, we achieved the near-impossible in 1969, and it is how we will do so once again,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. According to what Noticias Argentinas agency learned, NASA recently completed two general rehearsal tests for the crewed lunar mission Artemis II and identified technical issues. After the tests, NASA sent the Space Launch System rocket and the Orion spacecraft for the Artemis II mission back to the Vehicle Assembly Building from the launch pad to fix the problems. Teams have already started addressing the helium issue discovered in the cryogenic stage and are preparing several actions, including replacing the flight termination system batteries and performing end-to-end tests to meet safety requirements.
