NASA is so obsessed with defeating China that, instead of delaying its next flight to the moon, it has advanced it

It seemed like him Artemis program It was intended to be delayed again and again, but NASA’s last movement betrays the enormous geopolitical pressure of the moment. Artemis II, the mission with which the United States will return to lunar orbit for the first time in more than 50 years, is no longer scheduled for April 2026. They have advanced the launch window to February 5.

A declaration of intentions. This two -month advance is not a simple recalibration of the calendar of the Artemis missions. It is the NASA’s evening response to the feeling that the United States is staying behind the Methodical Lunar Program of China.

NASA recognizes that “there is a desire that we are the first to return to the surface of the moon,” and Artemis II is a first step. The mission without a launic had been postponed from 2024 to 2025, and then to “not before April 2026”. Now the launch window opens two months before: on February 5, 2026, leaving as a deadline “not later April 2026”.

Solving the ghosts of Artemis I. To understand why this advance is significant, you have to remember why Artemis II was delayed first. The main cause was the thermal shield of the Orion ship. After the return of the mission without crew Artemis I in 2022, NASA’s engineers found a disturbing surprise: the Orion shield had lost pieces of protective material. The gases generated by the heat of the reentry did not dissipate as planned, creating an overpressure that started fragments of the shield.

After almost two years of research, NASA says having understood and solved the problem with “maximum trust.” Of course, the solution is quite simple: they have modified the trajectory of the ship in their return to the earth to prevent the high temperatures that caused the failure. Next to him, NASA has solved other minor failures such as liquid hydrogen leaks that plagued the launch attempts of Artemis I.

The second space race. “The administration has asked us to recognize being in what is commonly called a second space race,” said the buliesha Hawkins, NASA’s attached administrator. His current boss, Sean Duffy, agency administrator and Trump’s Secretary of Transportation, has a more direct rhetoric: “We are going to win the Chinese on the moon.” The fear in Washington is that China, which plans to send its first astronauts to the lunar surface in 2030, the American Mission Artemis III is ahead.

While the Artemis program accumulated delays (largely due to the slowness of the Spacex Starship ship, necessary for the Aunidation of Artemis III), the Chinese program advanced with a firm step and without making a lot of noise. Experts in China’s spatial capacities such as Dean Cheng have come to affirm which is “quite likely that the Chinese terrify on the moon before NASA.” Advance Artemis II (the previous step without alansimiza) is the form that NASA has to demonstrate that it is still in the game.

What is Artemis II. Its main objective is to certify that the Orion ship and the SLS rocket can take humans to the moon safely. For ten days, American astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, as well as Canadian Jeremy Hansenthey will go around the moon without landing, following a free return trajectory that will bring them back to the earth.

The mission also has an important symbolic burden. They will be the first humans in more than 50 years to leave the orbit low terrestrial, traveling further than any other human being in history, more than 9,000 kilometers from the hidden face of the moon. From this unique perspective, They will carry out crucial geological observationsphotographing craters and old lava flows. They could even be the first humans to see with their own eyes the eastern basin, a gigantic structure on the boundary between the visible face and the hidden face of the moon. Their descriptions and data will be vital for the alunage of Artemis III.

The great irony. The advance of Artemis II is a calculated movement. NASA shows the world that it has overcome its technical problems and is ready to accelerate. Artemis II is not just a step towards the moon, it is a sprint in a geopolitical career and for the control of lunar resources.

The great contradiction is that, while NASA accelerates the overflight of Artemis II, its star mission, the alun of Artemis III planned for 2027, remains in serious trouble. Just a few days ago, the agency’s security advisors panel launched a blunt warning: They doubt that the modified version of the Spacex Starship is ready on time. His estimate is that he could accumulate a “year” delay. Therefore, the result of this space race is still open.

Image | POT

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