For NASA and its astronauts, the moon is no farther away in terms of distance, but it is slipping further into the future.

Officials at the space agency announced on Tuesday that Artemis II, the first American mission to send astronauts close to the moon in more than 50 years, will not take place late this year, as had been scheduled.

They set a September 2025 date for the mission, which will take astronauts around the moon without landing there.

The crew of that mission will consist of three NASA astronauts — Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch — and one Canadian astronaut, Jeremy Hansen.

The delay in Artemis II also pushes back the subsequent mission, Artemis III, which is to take two astronauts to the surface of the moon near its south pole. That will now be no earlier than September 2026.

This is a developing story and will be updated.