The US space agency NASA has postponed the manned moon landing originally planned for 2024 by the Trump administration by at least one year. The goal was not based on technical feasibility, the NASA boss said.

US space agency NASA has postponed by at least a year its goal of returning American astronauts to the Moon by 2024 under former US President Donald Trump. “The Trump administration’s goal, people landing in 2024, was not based on technical feasibility,” said NASA boss Bill Nelson, who was appointed by current US President Joe Biden.

Instead, the landing should take place at an unspecified time in 2025. With the so-called Artemis mission, American astronauts were to land on the Moon by 2024 for the first time in nearly 50 years, including the first woman. The Trump administration announced this in 2019.

Legal disputes cause further delays

Since the mission has already exceeded its budget in terms of funding and time, observers have long doubted whether the program will be followed. In the end, legal disputes led to a postponement: After Elon Musk’s private space company SpaceX received an order from NASA to develop the first commercial lunar landing device in April, Amazon reasons failed space company Blue Origin objected to Jeff Bezos. Expressed. After several instances, it was recently rejected and NASA announced that it would now continue to work with SpaceX.

The mission is to bring four astronauts into lunar orbit aboard the Orion spacecraft, where two of them will transfer to the SpaceX landing vehicle for a final approach to the Moon. The United States was by far the only country to have brought twelve astronauts to Earth’s satellite with the Apollo missions between 1969 and 1972.