Artemis program faces budget crunch and selects second lunar lander partner.
NASA's Artemis program, which aims to send humans to the Moon, is facing budget concerns as costs continue to rise. The space agency plans to spend at least $41.5 billion on the program from fiscal year 2024 through fiscal year 2028, with a single human landing at most. The budget includes $11 billion for the Space Launch System rocket and $4 billion for a Lunar Gateway that will not be used during the first lunar landing. The program's chief official for human spaceflight in deep space, Jim Free, warned that there probably was not enough funding to carry out the Artemis program as conceived.