After two unsuccessful launch attempts, NASA’s unmanned “Artemis” rocket will soon fly to the moon. The space agency is also ordering new suits for another mission with astronauts in 2024. With the old ones, there were problems with outdoor operations on the ISS space station.

The US space agency NASA is hoping for a new start attempt for the crisis-plagued moon mission “Artemis 1” at the end of September. At a press conference, NASA announced that September 23 or 27 is currently being targeted. Before that, there should be a test refueling on September 17th. However, all these dates have not yet been finalized and could also be postponed.

Previously, two attempts to start had failed in the past week – among other things because of a leaking fuel hose. The rocket system was then initially brought back to the hangar at the Cape Canaveral spaceport in the US state of Florida.

Problems had also arisen in earlier “Artemis” tests, which ultimately resulted in a significant delay in the project. With the program, named after the Greek goddess of the moon, US astronauts should actually land on the moon again by 2024 (“Artemis 3” mission), including for the first time a woman and a non-white person. 2025 is now considered a more likely date.

Meanwhile, NASA ordered the suits for the trip to the moon from Axiom Space. The US company, which is already working with NASA on commercial space station modules and sent four amateur astronauts to the ISS space station in April, was selected in the first tender of this kind, NASA announced. Axiom Space is responsible, among other things, for the design, development and production of the suits. The order is valued at approximately $229 million.

The space suits currently worn by NASA astronauts on the ISS are many years old. There have also been incidents of water collecting in helmets during field operations. Among others, the German astronaut Matthias Maurer was affected. The development of new space suits had been planned for a long time, but had been delayed due to various problems.

With the new suits, Americans are to land on the moon again for the first time in over 50 years in the “Artemis 3” mission. “What we learn about ‘Artemis 3’ and future missions on and around the moon will pave the way to Mars. Space suits allow us to literally take the next step,” said Nasa executive Lara Kearney, according to a company statement .