GAO: NASA's Artemis III Moon Landing Timeline 'Unlikely'

Challenges persist with spacesuits and lunar lander development, the watchdog agency said.

Thursday, December 07, 2023 at 05:13 PM ET

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Artist’s Illustration: Two suited crew members work on the lunar surface. One in the foreground lifts a rock to examine it while the other photographs the collection site in the background. [Courtesy: NASA]

Key Takeaways:

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) assesses NASA's December 2025 timeline for the Artemis III crewed lunar landing as "unlikely" to be met.
Key challenges causing delays include the ambitious development schedule for SpaceX's Human Landing System (HLS) and unresolved technical work, particularly concerning in-space propellant transfer.
Spacesuit development by Axiom is also facing design challenges, as the initial reference lacked minimum emergency life support, necessitating redesigns.
The GAO suggests a more realistic timeline for the Artemis III mission would be early 2027, given the complexity of human spaceflight projects.

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NASA’s current timeline for landing humans on the moon is “unlikely,” according to a new U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) assessment of challenges plaguing the Artemis III mission.

The space agency is on course to miss its timeline for the Artemis III crewed lunar landing mission, currently planned by December 2025, due to challenges with spacesuits and lunar lander development, the watchdog agency said in a November 30 report.