NASA’s first lunar landing since 1972 has been delayed to 2025 because of costs and Blue Origin litigation. This will mean that the Artemis mission which will send NASA’s first female and second man to the moon is being canceled.

  • NASA has announced schedule changes for Artemis’ mission 
  • Now, the crewed test flight for Origin and SLS aboard Artemis II is scheduled to take place in May 2024 
  • It means that the first woman to reach the moon will be the man who landed on it in 2025. 










NASA’s Artemis spacecraft, which will carry the next woman and man to the Moon, will not reach the lunar surface before 2025.

At a Tuesday live update by the American Space Agency, the rescheduled date were announced.

During the live briefing, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the crewed test flight of Origin and SLS on Artemis II are now targeting May 2024 – thus pushing the lunar landing to the following year.

Nelson claims that the Blue Origin lawsuit’s seven-month litigation, the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic, and the unexpected cost increases all had a role in changing the schedule. 

During the live briefing, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the crewed test flight of Origin and the Space Launch System (SLS) (pictured) on Artemis II are now targeting May 2024 – thus pushing the lunar landing to the following year

During the live briefing, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the crewed test flight of Origin and the Space Launch System (SLS) (pictured) on Artemis II are now targeting May 2024 – thus pushing the lunar landing to the following year

The NASA Administrator also called out Congress during the briefing for not providing enough funds to build the human landing system and ‘the Trump administration target of a 2024 human landing was not grounded it technical feasibility,’ Nelson explained.

‘Going forward, Congress has made it clear that there must be competition for the 10 plus moon landings in the future. A significant increase in funding will be required to support the competition, and this is starting with the budget for 2023.

“After all, China’s space program is becoming more capable of landing Chinese Taikonauts earlier than initially expected.” 

Nelson said that NASA had promised to fight aggressively to defeat other countries from landing on the moon.

Nelson says the seven months of litigation over the Blue Origin lawsuit, the coronavirus pandemic and unexpected costs increases have all played a roll in the schedule change. Blue Origin sued NASA for choosing on SpaceX (pictured) to build the human lunar lander

Nelson claims the seven-months of litigation in which Blue Origin was sued, along with the unexpected cost increases and the pandemic coronavirus have played an important role in the change to the program. Blue Origin sued NASA over SpaceX’s choice to construct the lunar lander.

Much of the delay is because of Blue Origin, founded by Jeff Bezos, which sued NASA in August, citing NASA had originally intended to award multiple contracts for the lunar lander –  but instead, only awarded Elon Musk’s Space as the the sole provider for the $2.91 billion award.

Blue Origin won the case against it on November 4th. This ended all litigation.

Nelson stated that NASA was not allowed to work with SpaceX during the seven-month period, however, Musk’s company continued its operations without being paid.

This schedule change is due to an Orion development cost update of $9.3 Billion, which covers fiscal year 12, through the first crewed flight testing and not later than May 2024. 

This encompasses the period between 2012 and 2024, up from the previous estimate of $6.7 billion. 

Joe Biden named Nelson as the head of NASA. Biden was willing to keep Artemis alive, which began under Trump in order to place astronauts on the Moon by 2024. It was intended to be a prelude for a much more ambitious future human Mars landing.

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