Moscow. August 10. INTERFAX.RU – NASA will postpone the flight to the Moon under the Artemis program, planned for 2024, due to the unavailability of xEMU spacesuits, according to the report of the Agency's General Inspection.
On schedule, the first two spacesuits should be ready by November 2024, but NASA is “struggling to achieve this goal” due to delays due to funding shortages, a pandemic and technical problems.
The schedule includes the presentation of the design, testing, the creation of a test spacesuit, the creation of two qualification spacesuits, a demonstration spacesuit for the ISS and two spacesuits for flight, the agency recalled. Now NASA believes that the suits will be ready no earlier than April 2025.
In addition, the inspection revealed delays in other programs, the successful completion of which is necessary for the landing of a man on the moon – in the program for the development of a super-heavy launch vehicle Space Launch System and in the development of the Orion reusable transport vehicle. Also, the postponement of the date is influenced by the protests of private companies that have not received a contract to participate in “Artemis”.
The report has already been presented to the NASA leadership. The Inspectorate recommended that the agency adjust the current schedule to mitigate development risks, create a separate schedule for the supply of equipment for the Gateway (circumlunar space station), HLS (human to the moon) and ISS programs, and ensure that the technical requirements for spacesuits for the Artemis programs are met. “and for the ISS.
Artemis's plan to return a man to the moon was presented in September 2020. A year earlier, NASA invited private companies to participate in a competition to create innovative projects as part of the program to develop a system for landing a man on the moon in 2024.
SpaceX, Dynetics and Blue Origin entered the competition for the contract in partnership with Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper. In April, NASA announced that Elon Musk's company had received a contract to send astronauts to the moon in 2024.
