It seems Americans won't be traveling to the Moon in 2025.

The first crewed mission to the Moon in the past fifty years, scheduled for September 2025 as part of the Artemis II expedition, is likely to be postponed to a later date.

2024-10-18 07:29:17https://naked-science.ru/community/999478

A new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office states that the NASA division responsible for building the ground infrastructure for the Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lift rocket is at risk of not completing all work in time for the launch of the Artemis II mission due to technical issues encountered during the development of the mobile launch platform and delays in testing at the launch site.

Additionally, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has postponed the assembly of the SLS as engineers continue to assess the readiness of the thermal protection system of the Orion spacecraft.

The issue arose during the uncrewed test flight of Artemis I in 2022, when this component endured overheating upon re-entry to Earth, with temperatures reaching 2760 degrees Celsius. However, the spacecraft lost some of the thermal protection system's shielding. If specialists decide to modify the system, it will require partial disassembly of the Orion spacecraft. Therefore, at best, NASA is expected to push the launch date from September 2025 to 2027.