Relocating astronauts to the moon by 2024 will not be an easy task, and NASA’s new chief human spaceflight, Kathy Lueders, has been careful not to make any promises that she may not be able to keep.
“I don’t have a crystal ball,” Lueders said in a conference call with reporters on June 18, when asked about the feasibility of a moon landing in 2024. “I wish I knew that answer. That would make my job a lot easier. Let’s try it, “he said.
Lueders, who recently became the associate administrator for NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate after the abrupt resignation of Doug Loverro, was a little more pragmatic about the timeline of NASA’s Artemis program than his predecessor. While Lueders seems cautiously optimistic about taking astronauts to the moon by 2024, Loverro was confident and firm in his claim that NASA would meet the deadline. At a NASA city hall in December, Loverro even said, “It is going to be easy to make this happen.”
Related: Putting astronauts on the moon in 2024 is a difficult task, says NASA.
Before Lueders became the head of human space flight at NASA, she served as manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, where she oversaw the first flights of a private spacecraft carrying crew to the International Space Station.
After a successful unmanned test flight by SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft in March 2019, and Boeing’s first unsuccessful attempt to do the same with its Starliner spacecraft nine months later, the crew’s first trade mission, SpaceX Demo-2 successfully delivered NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the space station in May. (Meanwhile, Boeing is preparing for a second attempt on the unmanned test flight before astronauts can begin flying in Starliner.)
Those missions have faced years of delay and other challenges. When NASA created its Commercial Crew Program in 2010, the agency planned for its astronauts to regularly travel in private craft to and from the space station by 2015. Now, five years later, the first mission for the commercial crew has just arrived at the laboratory. in orbit.
Related: NASA completes investigation into faulty Boeing Starliner capsule test flight
“It is very important to have an aggressive goal,” Lueders said in the June 18 conference call. “We had an aggressive goal in the commercial crew, and I think that aggressive goal ensured that we could get things done as quickly as possible.”
“But I also think the important thing is when you face technical challenges … you focus on making sure that you are achieving your aggressive goal in the right way,” added Lueders. “Yeah, it took a little bit longer to get Bob and Doug there. But I think we’ve done it carefully, and doing it well is better than doing it faster.”
While ensuring the safety of your astronauts is NASA’s number one priority when it comes to human space flight missions, the agency must also take additional precautions now to protect its workforce on Earth from the coronavirus pandemic. Due to the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, NASA has already faced delays in testing its new megarocket Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion crew capsule, which the agency plans to use for your Luna Artemis missions
Related: NASA suspends work on SLS megarocket and Orion capsule due to coronavirus outbreak
“I just went through a mission where we were in COVID the last two months,” Lueders said, referring to the SpaceX Demo-2 mission. “It is difficult to work during this time period, but we have a strong team. And I know that they are happy to have a goal and they are happy to advance towards the goal. And it is a pretty good goal for us to work.”
“If things come up on the road, where technically it takes us longer … then we will figure it out. But right now the team is trying. It is difficult,” added Lueders.
Email Hanneke Weitering at [email protected] or follow her @hannekescience. Follow us on twitter @Spacedotcom and in Facebook.
