The next Artemis mission, which will send four astronauts on a flight around the moon, will be delayed until 2026, NASA announced. The program is already years behind schedule.
China's sample return missions are explicitly steps on their well thought out plan towards human habitation and ISRU on the moon, though. If they can dig up anything worth lifting (ice/fuel especially) it's an easy W because the well is just so much shallower than Earth's.
They're also getting good practice with long term stationkeeping in lunar orbit with Queqiao. It's not just for comms, the intention as I understand it is to use it for lunar GNSS too, which requires a very precisely known orbit.
China's sample return missions are explicitly steps on their well thought out plan towards human habitation and ISRU on the moon, though. If they can dig up anything worth lifting (ice/fuel especially) it's an easy W because the well is just so much shallower than Earth's.
They're also getting good practice with long term stationkeeping in lunar orbit with Queqiao. It's not just for comms, the intention as I understand it is to use it for lunar GNSS too, which requires a very precisely known orbit.