Nasa Postpones Artemis 1 Lunar Mission to April

The leading space agency, NASA, announced postponing its lunar mission, Artemis 1, launching once again to April or May, after it was postponed last year to this February, the agency announced on Thursday,

The manager of the Artemis 1 program Mike Bolger said: "Ultimately, we're going to launch this flight hardware when the flight hardware is ready and when the team's ready."

More adjustments and minor preparations will be given more time due to the delay of the launch.

"While the teams are not working any major issues, NASA has added additional time to complete closeout activities inside the VAB [Vehicle Assembly Building] prior to rolling the rocket out for the first time," NASA's officials said in a statement.

Last year, the agency postponed its plans for the re-sending manned missions to the moon due to COVID-19’s economic aftermath, in addition to the high increase in the mission’s budget drove the agency to delay the launching of its first exploratory mission to the moon.

Before issuing its latest decision of delaying the mission, Nasa completed the installation of the Orion spacecraft on the Space Launch System as a sign for sending the probe to the moon which was later removed.

The agency told reporters: “Completing stacking is a really important milestone. It shows that we’re in the home stretch towards the mission,” Mike Sarafin, Artemis 1 mission manager at NASA Headquarters.

He added: “We’re looking at a period of time within February” for the launching, saying: “We’re very excited. We think this is really tremendous progress.”

It is expected that the launch will include sending a woman and a colored-skin man to the moon for the first time