Report: NASA's Artemis III mission is 3 months behind schedule
Artemis III delayed: Here's why.
NASA’s Artemis III mission is facing a three-month scheduling setback, putting pressure on the agency’s timeline to return astronauts to the moon.
BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. - NASA's Artemis III mission – part of the agency's wider mission to land astronauts back on the moon – is three months behind schedule, according to a report by NASA Watch, citing an internal memo from NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman.
Artemis III schedule delays
What we know:
According to an internal memo to NASA employees, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman outlined a number of delays impacting the Artemis III mission, but offered hope that the mission could get back on schedule.
"Right now, we are ~90 days broken against the Artemis III schedule, but there are still a lot of decisions to be made, problems to solve, and opportunities for the schedule to recover," Isaacman wrote in the memo, which was obtained and published by NASA Watch, a website that tracks agency news and updates.
NASA Watch editor Keith Cowing shared a copy of that memo with FOX 35's Esther Bower on Thursday, and talked about the significance of what the memo means for the mission.
"Everybody from the top to the bottom, contractors and the like got this," Cowing said, adding, "when you get memos like this, they’re from Jared".
What we don't know:
FOX 35 reached out to NASA on Thursday for comment on the memo. We did not receive a response prior to publication. It remains unclear how NASA plans to recover the 90 days to get back on schedule.
Timeline:
Isaacman wrote in the memo that the best-case scenario would keep the mission on track to launch in the summer of 2027, preserving up to two lunar landing attempts in 2028.
"The aspirational goal for NASA right now is to launch Artemis III in 2027, next year, that’s a push," Cowing said.
Despite the push to meet these milestones, agency leadership stressed that NASA will not rush the process and will only launch when fully prepared.
Why you should care:
The space race with China is growing tighter, with the outcome potentially decided in months rather than years.
The Artemis III mission does not involve putting humans on the moon immediately, but serves as a crucial test flight in Earth orbit to dock with landers being built by SpaceX and Blue Origin.
Both human landers must work properly before astronauts can walk on the lunar surface again.
"Yeah we got a question as to whether the SpaceX , Blue Origin vehicles work," Cowing said, noting that contractors could be contributing to the delays. "NASA is probably the best prepared of the three parties involved because they’ve got a spacecraft that works, and they're stacking the rocket".
The Source: The information in this story was gathered from an internal workforce memo written by NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, published by editor Keith Cowing on NASA Watch. FOX 35 Reporter Esther Bower reviewed the memo. She also reached out to NASA Communications staff for comment but did not hear back by Thursday airtime.