NASA is making big changes to accelerate the Artemis program

“This is not the right way forward,” Isaacman said.

A senior NASA official, speaking on background to Ars, noted that the space agency had experienced hydrogen and helium leaks during pre-launch preparations for both Artemis I and Artemis II, and that these issues had delayed the launch by months.

“If I remember, the timing between Apollo 7 and 8 was nine weeks,” the official said. “Launching SLS every three and a half years or so is not a recipe for success. And making each one of them a work of art with some major configuration changes is certainly not helpful in the process either, and we see the results of that clearly, right?”

The goal is therefore to standardize the SLS rocket into a single configuration in order to make the rocket as reliable as possible, and to launch it as frequently as every 10 months. NASA will fly the SLS until there are commercial alternatives to launching crews to the Moon, perhaps with Artemis V as mandated by Congress, or perhaps for a little longer.

Is everyone on board?

The NASA official said all of the agency’s prime contractors are on board with the change, and top leaders in Congress have been briefed on the proposed changes.

The biggest opposition to these proposals appears to be coming from Boeing, the prime contractor for the Exploration Upper Phase, a multibillion-dollar contract to develop a more powerful rocket that was scheduled to make its first launch later this decade. However, in a NASA press release, Boeing appeared to offer at least some support for the revised plans.

“Boeing is a proud partner of the Artemis mission and our team is honored to contribute to NASA’s vision for America’s Space Command,” Steve Parker, president and CEO of Boeing Defense, Space and Security, said in the press release. “The SLS core stage remains the world’s most powerful rocket stage, and the only stage that can take U.S. astronauts directly to the Moon and beyond in a single launch. As NASA develops an accelerated launch schedule, our workforce and supply chain are prepared to meet increased production needs.”

Strong reasons to change Artemis III

NASA’s new approach to Artemis reflects a return to the philosophy of the Apollo program. In the late 1960s, the space agency conducted a series of preparatory manned missions before the Apollo 11 landing on the moon. These included Apollo 7 (a low-Earth orbit test of the Apollo spacecraft), Apollo 8 (a lunar orbit mission), Apollo 9 (a low-Earth orbit rendezvous with a lunar lander), and Apollo 10 (a test of a lunar lander landing, without landing).

Using the earlier Artemis model, NASA skipped the steps taken by Apollo 7, 9, and 10. In the view of many industry officials, this jump from Artemis 2 — a manned lunar flyby to test only the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft — to Artemis 3 and a full lunar landing was enormous and risky.

The Artemis II crew practices egress from the Neil A. Armstrong Exit and Operations Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.Photography: Joe Raedle/Getty Images