NASA delays its Artemis moon missions

NASA announced Tuesday it is delaying its first-crewed missions to the moon in decades, delaying a moon flyby until September 2025 and an attempted landing on the moon until September 2026.

"To safely carry out these missions, agency leaders are adjusting the schedules for Artemis II and Artemis III to allow teams to work through challenges associated with first-time developments, operations, and integration," NASA sad in a release.

Artemis II was scheduled to send four astronauts into space in 2024 for a lunar flyby before returning to Earth while Artemis III was planning to send four astronauts to the moon in 2025.

In its release, NASA said that during an Artemis flight test, teams discovered battery issues and challenges with a component that controls air ventilation and temperature control.

The Artemis team will be made up of three Americans -- Victor Glover, Christina Hammock Koch and Reid Wiseman -- and one Canadian, Jeremy Hansen. Glover and Koch will be the first person of color and woman, respectively, to set foot on the lunar surface.

They are set to be first series of missions that NASA has used to send a crew to the moon since the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972, more than 50 years ago.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.