NASA’s Artemis 2: Why it took decades to return humans to the moon; experts explain

Two recent examples illustrate this clearly. Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is experiencing serious thruster problems, so much so that NASA decided to send it back from the International Space Station without a crew present. A heat shield on the Orion capsule, the same spacecraft that carried the Artemis 2 crew, broke in an unexpected way during the unmanned Artemis 1 mission, sparking years of additional research and forcing NASA to completely change its re-entry plans.

These are not failures of imagination. They’re a reminder of how unforgiving space travel still is.

NASA’s mission also relies on long-term political and financial support. After the Apollo era, budget cuts in the 1970s led to the cancellation of planned lunar missions, shifting focus to projects such as Skylab and later the space shuttle program. For decades, NASA focused on low-Earth orbit, including building and maintaining the International Space Station.

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In the late 1990s, the Clinton administration asked NASA to look beyond the space station. The issue took on added urgency after the space shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003, which raised serious concerns about the future of human spaceflight.

In 2004, President George W. Bush laid out a vision for space exploration that called for NASA to retire the space shuttle and focus on returning humans to the moon and eventually Mars. This led to the Constellation program, which included the Orion capsule and new rockets called Ares I and Ares V.

However, a 2009 review found that NASA’s plan was too expensive for its budget. The Obama administration canceled the Constellation program, but the Orion spacecraft continues. In 2010, NASA was also tasked with building a new heavy-lift rocket, which later became the Space Launch System.

Later, in 2017, the Trump administration once again shifted its focus back to the moon and set a lunar landing goal. Finally, in 2019, the effort was officially named Project Artemis.

Also read: Artemis 2 Cost Explained: How much did NASA spend on its latest moon mission? Who pays for this?