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NASA is unlikely to send a manned mission to the Moon until at least 2026, says supervisor

A supervisor of the government of USA said this Monday (15) that the Nasa failed to accurately estimate the cost of returning astronauts to the moon and predicted that the space agency would likely not complete the mission until “2026 at the earliest.”

Last week, NASA extended its goal to 2025 in its Artemis program, an initiative launched by the former president’s government. Donald Trump with the initial goal of returning humans to the lunar surface by 2024.

The space agency’s inspector general said he found that it “lacks a comprehensive cost estimate and needs to account for all the costs of the Artemis program.” The program was conceived as a springboard to the greater goal of sending astronauts to Mars.

The report found that NASA uses a rough estimate for the top three missions “which excludes $25 billion for key activities related to planned missions beyond Artemis III.”

He said NASA must identify ways to reduce costs. It further stated that the agency will likely spend $93 billion on the program by 2025 and faced a launch cost of $4.1 billion for at least its first four Artemis missions.

In a written response, NASA said that it has restructured its Human Exploration Mission and Operations Directorate organization to ensure effective management and that it has agreed that it should pursue “measurable cost reduction targets” for its Exploration Systems Development.

The agency’s administrator, Bill Nelson, cited delays in legal disputes over a contract with SpaceX for Elon Musk to build Artemis’s Lunar Landing Vehicle as one of the main reasons to extend the target date.

A federal judge on Nov. 4 rejected a Jeff Bezos Space Company Lawsuit, Blue Origin, against the US government, contesting NASA’s decision to award a $2.9 billion lunar landing contract to SpaceX.

As additional reasons for extending the target date, Nelson cited Congress, for having approved little money for the program, and the administration Trump, for having set a target for 2024 that was not feasible.

Reference: CNN Brasil

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