“Ultimately, what we are trying to do is create a blueprint for exploration beyond Earth,” Koerner shared. “So, first to the Moon, and then to Mars, and then beyond.”
NASA officials explained that it delayed both its planned Artemis II mission to fly around the Moon and back and subsequent Artemis III manned landing at the lunar South Pole to give time to deal with unanticipated problems.
These involved the development of new spacesuits, unanticipated detachment of material from the reentry heat shield on the unmanned Artemis I mission last year, and failures with the Orion spacecraft life support system and new abort ejection mechanism for its astronauts.