A prolonged shutdown of the US government, which lasts almost a month, may soon slow down preparations for the launch of the Artemis mission 2, representatives of the aerospace industry warn.
Currently, work is being done on the Space Launch System rocket (SLS) that by the Orion ship, who should go on a mission no earlier than February, continues - in particular, 20 In October, Orion docked with SLS at the Kennedy Center.
However, Lockheed Martin's vice president of manned space programs, Kirk Shirman, said, what if the shutdown continues, activity will have to be reduced. The main risks are related to late payments to contractors, especially small companies, which do not have a financial cushion, to continue working without payment.
in addition, flight delays may occur, because air traffic controllers work without a salary.
While large contractors, by Lockheed Martin and Aerojet Rocketdyne, assure, that preparations are proceeding according to plan - the company is even preparing for test runs of the RS-25 engines in the coming weeks.
However, unless the government shutdown ends soon, Artemis mission 2 risks experiencing delays.
Source: https://spacenews.com