While the White House may or may not be working towards canceling or drastically changing the Artemis Program, NASA is working on keeping it moving. While December’s Artemis 2 delay sounded like a “no earlier than” date, it now sounds like it’s more a “no later than” date.
While many people may look at NASA‘s Artemis Program and think it’s employing a large number of government employees, it’s actually employing a large number of companies to do the work for NASA. The vast majority of NASA employees who work on Artemis are in the design, research, or management areas.
Cancelling large parts of the program, something reportedly under consideration by the White House, would result not in a reduction in government employee salaries, but in putting many private companies, both large and small, in a position to lay off large parts of their staff.
“Things take a long time to build and certify, and if you throw them away every four years and start over, that’s probably the slowest and most expensive thing we could do,” Kirk Shireman, Orion program manager at Lockheed Martin, said at a SpaceCom panel on January 29.
Historically, incoming Presidents have typically thrown out the previous administration’s space plans for their own, which has led to delays in getting anything completed. While SLS and Orion have been inherited from President Bush and Obama initiatives, President Trump gave them a solidified mission with Artemis during his first term. Then President Biden did likely the best thing any administration could do: not change a thing.
Now President Trump and his advisor Elon Musk are looking at a new focus on Mars, ditching the Moon almost altogether.
The Artemis Program has been plagued with delays. While the agency recently announced it has resolved the Orion heat shield issue, it also announced a launch delay to April 2026. We usually look at that date as “no earlier than,” meaning it won’t take place any sooner. However, NASA seems to believe that is a “no later than” date.
NASA is already working on stacking the SLS rocket, which is well ahead of schedule for the April launch date. The leading work that will determine a potential earlier launch date will be tanking tests at LC-39B, which could take place as soon as fall.
“Stay the course. Let’s put humans back on the Moon, and let’s go do the things that we’ve been tasked to do,” Shireman concluded.
While being a contractor for what is likely a program to be canceled under Trump would make him biased to keep the status quo, there is merit in keeping the goals the same, even if that means the methods to achieve those might change.
