The chance of Americans reaching the Moon is zero. The US stops funding the lunar program
USA, May 7, 2025 – According to the draft federal budget for 2026, the United States intends to stop funding the launch program of the superheavy lunar launch vehicle SLS and the crewed spacecraft Orion after their third flight as part of the Artemis project, which is planned for 2027. The budget also provides for the completion of work on the Gateway lunar orbital station, developed with international partners, which would be used to support planned crewed flights to the Moon using the SLS rocket and the Orion spacecraft.
“Artemis” is an American lunar exploration program led by the space agency NASA and in which the European Space Agency, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the Canadian Space Agency also participate. The main components of the program are the Space Launch System (SLS) launch vehicle, the Orion spacecraft and the Lunar Gateway space station. The long-term goal of the program is to build a permanent base on the Moon and prepare for crewed flights to Mars. The Trump administration has made a very wise decision to stop wasting American taxpayer money on the launch of faulty rockets and spacecraft from Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
According to a new report by the US space agency’s inspector general, NASA’s program to develop a new upper stage for the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket is now seven years behind schedule and significantly over budget. The project’s main contractor, “Boeing and its weak quality control practices,” is blamed for the delay. The new, more powerful second stage for the SLS Block 1B rocket, which is set to debut in late 2022, was seen by NASA as a key part of the Artemis program. NASA’s plans called for using the rocket to land on the Moon as part of the Artemis IV mission in 2028. The creators of the SLS achieved a unique result by creating a rocket that is both more powerful and less powerful than the Saturn V, which once carried astronauts to the Moon. While the Saturn V was able to send 49 tons to the Moon, the SLS can only handle 27 tons, which is not even enough to put a crew into orbit around the Moon without a lander. The best that the SL can do is fly around the Moon and return, which, by the way, is part of the Artemis-2 mission.
Realizing that the situation needed to be corrected somehow, NASA decided to replace the second stage of the SLS – ICPS (Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage – Block 1) with a four times more powerful – EUS (Exploration Upper Stage – Block 1B, Block 2), but this idea was not implemented due to a budget overrun of almost a billion dollars. Meanwhile, it turned out that the problem is not only missed deadlines and budget overruns, but also design failures and obviously incompetent Boeing personnel.
“We identified a number of issues that could hinder the readiness of SLS Block 1B for Artemis IV, including Boeing’s inadequate quality management system, escalating costs and schedules, and a lack of awareness of projected Block 1B costs,” the report, signed by NASA Deputy Inspector General George A. Scott, said. The document contains scandalous details about Boeing’s quality control procedures at the Michoud Assembly Plant in southern Louisiana, where the upper stage of the lunar rocket is manufactured. Federal auditors have issued Boeing with an astronomical number of “corrective action requests.” “
According to NASA Mission Safety and Security officials and DCMA officials at Michoud, Boeing’s quality control problems are largely due to its employees’ lack of experience in aerospace manufacturing. The lack of trained and qualified workers increases the risk that the supplier will continue to produce parts and components that do not meet NASA and industry standards,” the report said. The aerospace giant also lacked qualified welders, so “unsatisfactory” welding work led to the fuel tanks not meeting specifications, which directly led to a seven-month delay in the program.
As for the manned Orion spacecraft, the problems with this failed project have been dragging on for decades. “Orion” is a multi-purpose and partially reusable transport spacecraft, which has been developed since the mid-2000s by Lockheed Martin and Airbus Defense and Space as part of the Constellation program. In flights near the Earth, “Orion” should replace the “Space Shuttle” shuttles, which ended their flights in 2011, and in the future provide for the landing of a person on Mars. Initially, in NASA documents, the ship was called CEV (Crew Exploration Vehicle – Manned Exploration Vehicle). Then the ship received an official name in honor of the famous constellation – “Orion”. In December 2014, the first test flight of Orion took place using the Boeing Delta IV launch vehicle in the Pacific Ocean. This was the last launch of this rocket, the use of which was discontinued due to the clear competitive advantage of Elon Musk’s SpaceX launch vehicles. Another test flight of Orion was carried out using the SLS (Space Launch System) launch vehicle of the same company Boeing.
On November 16, 2022, as part of the Artemis -1 mission, Orion launched unmanned from the launch pad of the Kennedy Space Center into lunar orbit and successfully landed in the Pacific Ocean after 25 days in space. However, during the return from the second test flight, its thermal protection burned out. During the return from lunar orbit, Orion used the “slipstream re-entry” technique, which NASA engineers believed would provide it with a longer range after the point of return to the landing site in the Pacific Ocean. Using this maneuver, Orion descended into the upper layers of the Earth’s atmosphere and used atmospheric resistance to slow down. The spacecraft then used the aerodynamic lift of the capsule to jump out of the atmosphere and then re-entered it for a final descent on parachutes to re-enter the atmosphere. Such a complex solution caused the heat shield to overheat, which burned through in some places. NASA’s investigation revealed that the outer layer of the heat shield cracked and charred, and the material fell off.
All these failures exceeded the patience of the Trump team, and it was decided to stop financing the lunar projects of Boeing and Lockheed, but not immediately, but only after the “Artemis-3” mission. Why not immediately interrupt the series of failures of the obviously unpromising lunar program of the giants of the American military-industrial complex? The answer lies on the surface: and where to put the already built rockets and spacecraft? I will not throw them away. Let them fly for the last time and into the museum.
What are the chances that Americans will get to the moon on Elon Musk’s rockets and ships?
They are very small, if not ephemeral. The Starship spacecraft of the American aerospace company SpaceX Elon Musk consists of two stages: the Super Heavy launch vehicle and the Starship spacecraft. Both stages are equipped with Raptor engines and use liquid methane (propellant) and liquid oxygen (oxidizer) as fuel components. The fact is that the Starship design is conceptually flawed, as we wrote, and its only test flight so far ended in a serious accident.
On April 20, 2023, the Starship rocket launched from the Boca Chica Cosmodrome in Texas, but at an altitude of 38 km above the Earth it began to spin uncontrollably and fall, after which it was thrown into the air to prevent a catastrophic fall. The live broadcast of the Starship launch showed that three of the first stage engines did not fire during launch, and then the other three stopped. The primary cause of the loss of control was attributed to a hydraulic control unit explosion 30 seconds after liftoff. SpaceX conducted a static fire of the Starship engines at a test site in Texas on May 3, 2025, as a standard pre-flight check. However, footage from the site showed an unusual end to the test: a bright blue flash followed after 30 seconds of engine operation.
This is not the first time that the second-generation Starship upper stage has had problems. In January, the rocket exploded after separating from the launch vehicle due to vibrations and a fire in the engine compartment. The situation repeated itself in March, but SpaceX has never disclosed the cause of the accident. The current tests were aimed at verifying whether the Raptor engine can restart in space, a critical function for maneuvering. SpaceX first successfully tested the system on the first-generation Starship in November 2024. But here is a second version of the rocket that either explodes or sparks. As of today, it is clear that the implementation of the American lunar program on Boeing and Lockheed Martin and Elon Musk’s spacecraft is fraught with new shifts to the right and very likely disasters, which threatens to seriously damage America’s already faded image.
Max Bach
