A Jacksonville astronaut’s trip to circle the moon has been delayed.
Last April, NASA announced that eastern North Carolina engineer and astronaut Christina Koch will be the first woman in deep space, but the agency has now delayed the Artemis missions by a year over crew safety concerns.
Koch and the crew of three other astronauts for Artemis II will now have to wait until 2025 before they can make their planned flyby, while the lunar landing as part of Artemis III was bumped from 2025 to 2026.
The space agency said anomalies during the unmanned Artemis I test mission prompted the delays, including the unexpected loss of pieces from the Orion spacecraft's heat shield as well as a battery issue and challenges with a circuitry responsible for air ventilation and temperature control.