THE NEW SPACE RACE: NASA delays first moon landing in decades.

NASA is delaying its long-awaited return to the surface of the moon by a year over crew safety concerns.

Why it matters: The landing was one of two postponements to the Artemis program announced by the space agency, as it also pushed back a slingshot around the moon that was scheduled for next year.

The crew of four astronauts for Artemis II will now have to wait until 2025 before they can make their planned flyby, while their lunar landing as part of Artemis III was bumped from 2025 to 2026.

Artemis IV, the first planned mission to an extraterrestrial space station, dubbed the Gateway, remains on track for 2028, NASA said.

NASA said anomalies during the unmanned Artemis I test mission prompted the delays.

This is a disappointment but it isn’t a surprise.