Börse Express – ESA on postponing the lunar mission: Safety is the main concern

Washington (dpa) – The European Space Agency (ESA) expressed its understanding for the postponement of the manned lunar orbit flight “Artemis 2” by the US space agency NASA. “Artemis is an ambitious program for a sustainable presence on the Moon, and ESA's main concern is the same as that of our partners, which is ensuring the safety of the crews,” the Paris-based European Space Agency said on Wednesday. Therefore, we support partners' efforts to make the mission as strong as possible.

“The United States is returning to the Moon, with international partners on board, and the program has commercial approaches,” said Daniel Neuenschwander, director of spacecraft launches at the European Space Agency. “None of this can be done easily without having to face certain challenges.” The postponement is unfortunate, but it doesn't really surprise him.

The US space agency NASA announced on Tuesday that it will postpone the manned flight to the moon “Artemis 2”, which was previously scheduled for November 2024, to September 2025 due to problems with the rocket and spacecraft. The Artemis 3 manned lunar landing will be postponed to September 2026. They want to give the teams more time to address current challenges. Among other things, the Orion capsule's thermal protection shield still needs to be revised.

ESA contributes the European Service Module (ESM) to the Orion spacecraft – built by Airbus
In Bremen. However, the body stressed that the delay had nothing to do with the European Stability Mechanism. This exceeded expectations for “Artemis 1”. Neuenschwander: “We also have technical challenges with the Artemis server, but we are not on the critical path here.” Issa is not involved in the problem./rbo/DP/jha

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AXC0238 2024-01-10/17:17

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