More delays for NASA’s astronaut moonshots, with crew landing off for another few years

By Marcia Dunn, The Associated Press on January 9, 2024.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) – Astronauts will have to wait until next year before flying to the moon and another few years before landing on it, under the latest round of delays announced by NASA on Tuesday.

The space agency had planned to send four astronauts around the moon late this year, but pushed the flight to September 2025 because of technical issues. The first human moon landing in more than 50 years also got bumped, from 2025 to 2026.

The news came barely an hour after a Pittsburgh company abandoned its own attempt to land its spacecraft on the moon because of a mission-ending fuel leak.

Launched on Monday as part of NASA’s commercial lunar program, Astrobotic Technology’s Peregrine lander was supposed to serve as a scout for the astronauts. A Houston company will give it a shot with its own lander next month.

NASA is relying heavily on private companies for its Artemis moon-landing program for astronauts, named after the mythological twin sister of Apollo.

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