The first Nasa mission since 1972 to put humans on the Moon’s surface has been pushed back by one year to 2025.
Few observers expected Nasa to make the previous 2024 date, because of a funding shortfall and a lawsuit over the landing vehicle.
But the space agency’s chief Bill Nelson confirmed the delay in a press conference on Tuesday.
Under its Artemis programme, Nasa will send the first woman and the 13th man to the lunar surface.
A US federal judge recently upheld a decision by the agency to award the contract to build a lunar landing vehicle for this mission to Elon Musk’s company SpaceX.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos had contested the decision, in part because he said the contract was supposed to have been awarded to more than one bidder. Mr Bezos’ firm Blue Origin had partnered with three other aerospace companies to vie for the prestigious lander contract.
However, a funding shortfall from Congress meant this wasn’t possible, according to a rationale published by Nasa at the time of the contract announcement.
