---
title: "Bad News, Astronauts: NASA Probably Won’t Reach Moon by 2024"
description: "As NASA scrambles to get ready for Artemis, its upcoming crewed mission to the Moon slated for 2024, China may take the lead."
date: "2019-07-09"
modified: "2019-07-09"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/astronauts-nasa-moon-2024"
categories:
  - "Astronomy"
  - "Moon"
  - "NASA"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "china"
  - "moon landing"
  - "NASA"
  - "space"
  - "the digest"
---

# Bad News, Astronauts: NASA Probably Won’t Reach Moon by 2024

![As NASA scrambles to get ready for Artemis, its upcoming crewed mission to the Moon slated for 2024, China may take the lead.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/astronauts-nasa-moon-2024.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: NASA/Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

## Delicate Operation

Things don’t look great for Artemis, NASA's upcoming crewed mission to the Moon.

Tasked by the White House with putting boots on the Moon by 2024, NASA has scrambled to accelerate its plans and piece together a successful, cohesive mission [amidst budgetary problems](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-cuts-pay-moon-mission>) and [technological shortcomings](<https://futurism.com/nasa-spacex-boeing-safety-flaws-rockets>).

"If the pieces come together in the right way they can pull it off," Planetary Science Institute lunar scientist Ryan Watkins [told *Nature Magazine*](<https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02020-w>). "But they have to come together."

## Shiny Silver

Meanwhile, China is pushing ahead with its own [Moon plans](<https://futurism.com/china-to-send-people-to-the-moon-by-2020>). *Nature* reports that the country expects to complete a crewed lunar landing in the 2030s.

"In the next one to two decades, we will definitely see a Chinese astronaut landing on the Moon," London Institute of Space Policy and Law researcher Christoph Beischl told *Nature*.

Given China's steady progress and the frequency at which Congress and NASA butt heads, we may find that the U.S. loses the space race this time around.

**READ MORE:** [Can NASA Really Return People to the Moon by 2024?](<https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02020-w>) \[*Nature Magazine*\]

**More on space travel:** *[NASA's Plan for a Lunar Outpost Just Leaked](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-lunar-outpost>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)