America’s historic return to the moon suffers ANOTHER setback

Space enthusiasts will have to wait even longer to see man set foot on the moon for the first time since 1972.

The delays are an interesting chapter in a book of American space exploration that has featured stranded astronauts, Elon Musk, and celebrity forays in recent years.

The lunar landing task would fall under Artemis IV, which has a launch date of early 2028.

In 2024, Boeing astronauts were stranded in space and had to be rescued by Musk’s SpaceX program.

2025 saw headlines from the widely mocked New Shepard program, backed by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos. The all-female celebrity jaunt traveled to the Karman line, known internationally as the official boundary of space, grabbing attention while actual female astronauts were simultaneously in orbit conducting space operations.

At the same time, 2025 was meant to be the year NASA’s Artemis III would land astronauts near the South Pole of the moon for the first time. Now, that target has been pushed back and the mission seems increasingly distant.

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Photo bty CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images

Not only is Artemis III still not ready, but Artemis II hasn’t even launched yet. Artemis II was planned as a crewed lunar orbit aimed at testing systems before the lunar landing. NASA gave it a mission window of late 2024.

However, in 2024, NASA pushed Artemis II back for the first time to September 2025, while Artemis III (the human landing) received a new window of September 2026. After more delays, the 10-day Artemis II mission has since been scheduled for no earlier than April 2026, but the lunar landing mission will be delayed even longer than expected.

Now, Artemis III is scheduled for mid-2027. Its official mission page states that it will launch by 2028. However, the parameters have now shifted and this mission will no longer complete a lunar surface landing at all.

That feat has since been bumped to another mission, according to NASA.

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Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP/Getty Images

The space program will certainly not be making any believers with its latest announcement in early March, which stated that the lunar landing task would fall under Artemis IV, which has a launch date of early 2028.

According to the announcement, NASA plans to launch another lunar surface mission, Artemis V, by the end of 2028, followed by subsequent annual missions thereafter.

“This mission also is when NASA is expected to begin building its moon base,” NASA claimed.

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