THE NEW SPACE RACE: SLS contract extension hints at additional Artemis delays.

NASA, in an Aug. 14 procurement filing, announced its intent to extend that contract to at least September 2026. That would allow Teledyne Brown to complete work on the third and final LVSA “as well as to ultimately conclude LVSA activities” under the contract.

The proposed extension also includes several options for additional extensions. The first is a nine-month extension that would allow the contract to run through June 2027. That would be exercised “in the event an extension is necessary to conclude Artemis III launch and post-flight analysis in support of NASA Administrator Bill Nelson’s public announcement on January 9, 2024, in relation to the current SLS launch manifest,” the filing stated.

That is a reference to the announcement by the agency of delays in both the Artemis 2 and 3 missions. At a Jan. 9 briefing, NASA said that Artemis 2 would launch no earlier than September 2025, with Artemis 3 to follow no earlier than September 2026.

The agency has not updated those launch dates since then. However, NASA has yet to publicly resolve one of the issues that prompted the Artemis 2 launch delay, erosion to the heat shield of the Orion spacecraft on the uncrewed Artemis 1 mission in 2022. It is also unclear if development of key elements for Artemis 3, notably the Starship lunar lander by SpaceX, are on a schedule that could support a mission in late 2026.

Meanwhile: China on track for crewed moon landing by 2030, space official says.

It’s a real race.