Artemis 2

NASA again delays launch date

India landed a robot on the moon and NASA brought pieces of an asteroid back to Earth to study. A green comet illuminated night skies and a "ring of fire" eclipse captivated spectators from Oregon to Brazil. SpaceX launched nearly 100 rockets, and Japan and Europe put powerful new space telescopes into orbit.

For the first time, a woman and an African-American will go to the moon. NASA announced on Monday the names of the four astronauts who will orbit Earth's natural satellite at the end of 2024 after more than 50 years of absence, reported AFP.

NASA will announce the names next month of the four astronauts, three Americans and one Canadian, who will fly around the Moon next year, the head of the U.S. space agency said on March 9.

NASA is now targeting Sept. 27 as the earliest possible launch date for its uncrewed Artemis 1 mission to the Moon, the agency said in a blog post on Sept. 12.

NASA conducted a test firing of the engines for its giant Space Launch System (SLS) lunar rocket on Jan. 16 but they shut down earlier than planned, the space agency said.

The "hot-fire" test at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi was supposed to last a little over eight minutes - the time the engines would burn in flight - but they shut down just over a minute into the burn.

The Japanese government has decided that the country will join NASA's program to colonize the moon, which moves the landing to the lunar surface in 2024, the Kyodo news agency said.

The decision will be formally announced by the end of this year. NASA has announced that the new moon assimilation program has been named "Artemis." It will consist of three stages.