Canada will have to wait a little longer to take its first baby steps on the Moon.That’s because NASA has officially postponed the Artemis II mission by 10 months to September of 2025, from a previous target of November 2024. That in turn means that the Artemis III — designed to carry astronauts to the lunar surface — won’t lift off until September, 2026.In a news release, NASA said Artemis IV, the first mission to the Gateway lunar space station, remains on track for 2028It’s noteworthy as far as Canada is concerned because the mission is to carry a four-person crew including Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen around the dark side of the moon and back. It would be the furthest from the Earth that humans have ever travelled, including the Apollo moon missions that ran from 1968-1972..“The safety of our astronauts is NASA’s top priority as we prepare for future Artemis missions,” said NASA administrator Bill Nelson. “The success of these early missions relies on our commercial and international partnerships to further our reach and understanding of humanity’s place in the solar system.”It comes after NASA’s investigation into the “unexpected loss” of so-called char layer pieces from the heat shield of the unmanned Artemis I spaceship earlier this spring.The delay is meant to give contractors — including Elon Musk’s SpaceX — more time to develop the human landing systems and space suits for future missions.In addition to Hansen, a former RCAF F-18 fighter pilot based in Cold Lake, the mission is noteworthy for landing the first woman and person off colour onto the lunar surface.The Artemis program is ultimately meant to train humans to live and work on future manned missions to Mars.
