NASA's Former Chief Warns Artemis Lander Gap Threatens Moon Mission Timeline NASA’s former administrator, Jim Bridenstine, has raised alarms about the agency’s lack of a functional lunar lander for its Artemis program, warning that the absence of a reliable vehicle could derail the 2028 goal of returning humans to the Moon. Speaking on the This Week in Space podcast on June 12, Bridenstine, now CEO of Quantum Space, emphasized that without a working lander, the Artemis missions risk facing significant delays. “We still don’t have a lander, and without a lander, you can’t land on the Moon. It’s really that simple,” he said, expressing concern that the gap could lead to critical setbacks. Bridenstine criticized the complexity of the Artemis architecture, contrasting it with the streamlined approach of the Apollo missions. During the Apollo era, the Saturn V rocket carried both the command module and the lunar lander in a single launch, a design he called “the genius of Apollo” for its simplicity. In contrast, Artemis requires the Orion spacecraft and the crewed lander to launch separately, a setup he described as “extraordinarily complicated.” He noted that the Apollo engineers prioritized simplicity, enabling the first Moon landing just eight years after President John F. Kennedy’s 1961 pledge, a feat he argued Artemis is struggling to replicate. The current Artemis plan faces hurdles as neither SpaceX’s Starship nor Blue Origin’s Blue Moon has achieved orbital flight. Both landers must first pass safety tests, including uncrewed lunar landings, before they can be used for crewed missions.#nasa #artemis_program #jim_bridenstine #quantum_space #apollo_missions
