NASA might not even hit its new 2025 moon deadline thanks to high costs and Blue Origin litigation

NASA might not even hit its new 2025 moon deadline, an expert has warned, amid fears China could now beat the US to the lunar surface this decade. It comes just hours after the US space agency revealed that its plans to send the first woman and first person of colour to Earth's only natural satellite had been delayed by a year. Seven months of litigation over the Blue Origin lawsuit, the coronavirus pandemic and unexpected cost increases have all played a part in the schedule change. But Dr Erin Macdonald, a Scottish-American astrophysicist and aerospace engineer, agreed with NASA Administrator Bill Nelson that a lack of finances and an unrealistic target set by Donald Trump's government in 2019 was also to blame. She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'The budget that they were awarded to do this under the previous administration wasn't really sufficient to get everything completed in the timeline they were given.'