NASA has announced that it will postpone the Artemis II lunar mission, in which Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen is taking part.
The mission was originally scheduled for November this year, but will be postponed to September 2025.
The US space agency announced an update on the schedule for the next mission around the moon on Tuesday. Due to a number of technical problems and to allow more preparation time, NASA decided to postpone.
The follow-up mission “Artemis III,” which will land astronauts on the moon for the first time in more than 50 years, has been postponed until at least September 2026.
The Canadian Hansen's first spaceflight, together with experienced NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, was intended to be the first manned flight of the Orion capsule and the first mission to the moon since the last Apollo mission in 1972.
The Artemis II mission involves a flyby of the moon, a looping maneuver around the far side of Earth's natural satellite before returning.
Another Canadian astronaut, Jenni Gibbons, was named a “backup” in November to replace Mr. Hansen if necessary.