NASA: Bad News, Something Came Up, Gotta Rain-Check That Moon Trip :(

2024 plans to return to the Moon now look to be off. Wonder what happened.

Space: Rescheduled

Well, 2020's off to a rip-roaring start of "cancelled," so here's more to toss on this heaping trash fire of a year, Space Fans Edition: NASA just announced it's gonna have to reschedule that trip to the Moon.

According to a Friday report in the New York Times, NASA has officially put the kibosh on plans to get Orion and the Space Launch System — both of which would be used to get us to the Moon sometime before the end of 2024 — on hold.

Blue Moon

Yes, even NASA facilities — like every other crack, crevice, corner, and human in this world — can, in fact, catch some coronavirus. At the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, where the Space Launch System was being tested, one worker was confirmed to have tested positive for COVID-19. Plenty of work on rockets can be done remotely, but in order to actually give these systems the tests they need to progress, there have to be workers on-site.

Non-Moonshot Moonshot

According to the Times, NASA workers at other sites have caught COVID-19 as well. But interestingly — and, also as the Times points out, incredibly optimistically — NASA invited media to come, in May, and witness the first launch of Americans to the ISS since 2011 on board the SpaceX Crew Dragon program.

READ MORE: Coronavirus Delays Work on NASA’s Moon Rocket and Capsule [The New York Times]

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