NASA Plans To Land First Woman, Next Man On Moon In 2024

In the latest development, NASA shared an update on its Artemis programme including the new Phase 1 plans to land the first woman and the next man on the surface of the Moon in 2024.

NASA has accepted a bold challenge to speed up its exploration plans by over four years and to develop sustainable exploration by the end of the decade. For the first time, since the last Apollo lunar flight in 1972, the agency has begun to gain momentum towards sending humans to the Moon again.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said that, “With bipartisan support from Congress, our 21st-century push to the Moon is well within America’s reach. As we’ve solidified more of our exploration plans in recent months, we’ve continued to refine our budget and architecture. We’re going back to the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and inspiration for a new generation of explorers. As we build up a sustainable presence, we’re also building momentum toward those first human steps on the Red Planet.”

Bridenstine said that, "If Congress approves the first tranche of $3.2 billion by Christmas. we're still on track for a 2024 moon landing. To be clear, we're going to the South Pole. There's no discussion of anything other than that."

Three separate projects are competing to build a lunar lander carrying two astronauts, one of them is a woman, from their vessel Orion to the Moon. The first one is being developed by Blue Origin, founded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, in collaboration with Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper. Elon Musk's SpaceX and the business Dynetics are pursuing the other two projects.

The new SLS giant rocket is currently in its test phase. The first flight, Artemis I, scheduled for November 2021, will be unmanned. Artemis II will carry astronauts around the Moon in 2023 but won't land.