NASA has officially confirmed that the first landing of American astronauts on the lunar surface in the 21st century has been postponed to early 2028. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
The space agency is currently accelerating work and revising technical requirements to meet the scheduled timeline.
"We are creating all conditions for the successful and safe return of Americans to the lunar surface in 2028… And when the astronauts take their first steps, the lunar rover and the first elements of a permanent human presence will already be waiting for them there," said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman.
Jeremy Parsons, head of the Artemis program, noted that the preparation of lunar landing modules is being carried out in parallel by two private contractors — Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin.
As previously planned, the target area for human landing and subsequent deployment of a permanent lunar base remains the region of the lunar south pole.
Earlier, Kursiv wrote that NASA astronomers are preparing the first-ever airport on the Moon.