NASA is accelerating work on preparations for the Artemis IV mission, during which astronauts are planned to land on the Moon in 2028, the website infohub.kz reports.
Details were announced at a press conference held by the U.S. space agency. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman and other senior officials presented a plan to speed up work and streamline technical requirements in order to meet the Artemis IV preparation timeline.
Speaking at the event, Isaacman said the United States is taking the necessary steps to ensure a safe landing for astronauts. According to him, a lunar rover and basic modules for long-term human stays will already be in place there by the time the crew arrives.
Artemis program manager Jeremy Parsons, in turn, said two private companies — Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin — are working simultaneously on building lunar landers. According to him, the agency will try to delay as long as possible its choice of the company that will deliver the crew to the lunar surface, since both SpaceX and Blue Origin are preparing to land on schedule.
Astronauts last landed on the Moon in December 1972 during the Apollo 17 mission. The crew spent more than three days on the surface, collected lunar soil samples and carried out scientific experiments. Since then, humans have not set foot on the lunar surface again.
Recall that on April 1, the Orion spacecraft was launched as part of the Artemis II lunar mission. A vehicle carrying four astronauts headed for the Moon. It was the first crewed flight to the Moon since December 1972 and the first beyond low Earth orbit in more than half a century. The astronauts returned to Earth on April 11.
After that, NASA announced the names of the astronauts who joined the crew of the Artemis III mission, scheduled for 2027. They will conduct a series of complex tests in near-Earth orbit that are crucial for the Artemis IV mission.