By Tim Binnall
Those looking forward to seeing humans return to the moon in the near future are going to have to wait a little while longer as NASA's ambitious plan to pull off the feat by 2024 has been delayed by at least a year. The somewhat dispiriting announcement was reportedly made by Administrator Bill Nelson during a press conference on Tuesday when he explained that the original timetable "was not a goal that was really technically feasible" and that the space agency now foresees the mission occurring "no earlier than 2025."
In detailing the decision, Nelson cited difficulties brought about by the pandemic, budgetary concerns surrounding developing the equipment necessary to return to humans to the moon, and, in a sign of the times, a legal challenge from private space company Blue Origin. That matter, which came about earlier this year when the company objected to NASA awarding the contract to develop their Human Landing System to Space X, wound up causing a months-long delay in the mission until the case was settled last week.
While it remains to be seen if it will hold, Nelson did put forward a new timetable for the project, beginning with the first test of their Space Launch System in February of 2022. This unmanned mission would be followed by a second launch in May of 2024 wherein a crew of astronauts aboard the craft will travel "further than humans have ever been, probably 40,000 miles beyond the moon." Provided all goes according to plan, humanity's history-making return to the moon would happen the following year.