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NASA Announces Further Delays in Artemis Moon Missions

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson speaks during a news conference about the agency's Artemis campaign at the James E. Webb Auditorium at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC, on December 5, 2024. (Photo by amid farahi / AFP)
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson speaks during a news conference about the agency's Artemis campaign at the James E. Webb Auditorium at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC, on December 5, 2024. (Photo by amid farahi / AFP)
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NASA Announces Further Delays in Artemis Moon Missions

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson speaks during a news conference about the agency's Artemis campaign at the James E. Webb Auditorium at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC, on December 5, 2024. (Photo by amid farahi / AFP)
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson speaks during a news conference about the agency's Artemis campaign at the James E. Webb Auditorium at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC, on December 5, 2024. (Photo by amid farahi / AFP)

NASA chief Bill Nelson announced on Thursday new delays in the US space agency's Artemis program to return astronauts to the moon for the first time since 1972, pushing back the next two planned missions including the planned lunar landing.

Nelson told a news conference that the next Artemis mission, sending astronauts around the moon and back, has slipped to April 2026, with the subsequent moon landing mission pushed to 2027, Reuters reported.

The Artemis program was established by NASA during President-elect Donald Trump's first administration with the goal of returning astronauts to the moon for the first time since the US space agency's Apollo 17 mission. The program is intended to establish a lunar base as a step toward the more ambitious goal of human missions to Mars. The United States is estimated to spend roughly $93 billion on the program through 2025.

The Artemis program has made noteworthy progress but also has experienced various delays and rising costs. In 2022, NASA carried out the Artemis I mission, a 25-day uncrewed voyage around the moon ending when the Orion capsule carrying a simulated crew of three mannequins made a successful splash down in the Pacific.

That marked the first flight of NASA's massive Space Launch System rocket, a powerful and over-budget vehicle tasked with launching humans to space aboard the Orion capsule built by Lockheed Martin. SpaceX's Starship is contracted to land astronauts on the moon's surface.

The follow-up Artemis II mission, a flight carrying astronauts around the moon in Orion but without a landing, has experienced delays, including one announced by Nelson in January pushing back its time table to September 2025. Nelson on Thursday said it would be further delayed until April 2026.
The Artemis III mission is planned as the lunar landing. Nelson in January said that mission was pushed back to September 2026. Nelson said this will now be in mid-2027.

NASA is using SpaceX, Lockheed Martin, Boeing and other contractors in the Artemis program.
The trip by the Artemis astronauts to the moon is planned as a relay among multiple spacecraft in space, initially launching off Earth aboard Orion then transferring in space to the Starship system to go to and from the lunar surface.
The United States and China, an ascending power in space, are racing to land astronauts on the moon. Both nations are courting partner countries and leaning on private companies for their moon programs.
The Artemis program has been NASA's top priority under Nelson. The program will lean heavily on SpaceX's Starship rocket. Trump's first NASA chief, former US congressman Jim Bridenstine, launched the Artemis program and persuaded Congress to increase the agency's budget to fund it. Trump has picked billionaire businessman Jared Isaacman, an associate of SpaceX founder Elon Musk, to succeed Nelson as NASA chief.
SpaceX is hoping for swift advances in Starship development during the second Trump administration, whose space agenda is expected to give the Artemis program a greater focus on the more ambitious goal of landing people on Mars, Musk's premier space aspiration.

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Lebanon’s Historic Pines Are Dying, One Cone at a Time 

A car passes by a pine tree forest, where a pine crisis is unfolding, caused by an invasive insect that feeds on the cones that produce Lebanon's prized pine nuts, in Bkassine, Lebanon, October 21, 2025. (Reuters)
A car passes by a pine tree forest, where a pine crisis is unfolding, caused by an invasive insect that feeds on the cones that produce Lebanon's prized pine nuts, in Bkassine, Lebanon, October 21, 2025. (Reuters)
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Lebanon’s Historic Pines Are Dying, One Cone at a Time 

A car passes by a pine tree forest, where a pine crisis is unfolding, caused by an invasive insect that feeds on the cones that produce Lebanon's prized pine nuts, in Bkassine, Lebanon, October 21, 2025. (Reuters)
A car passes by a pine tree forest, where a pine crisis is unfolding, caused by an invasive insect that feeds on the cones that produce Lebanon's prized pine nuts, in Bkassine, Lebanon, October 21, 2025. (Reuters)

In the heart of southern Lebanon, where pine trees once stood tall and abundant, a quiet crisis is unfolding. The cones are barren, the trees are drying and a forest that was a lifeline for entire communities is under siege.

Farmers in Bkassine forest have watched their pine yields dwindle for years. At first, they blamed seasonal weather changes. Then, in 2015, scientists confirmed what many feared: an invasive insect had taken hold, one that feeds on the cones that produce Lebanon's prized pine nuts.

"It's not just the nuts," said Dr. Nabil Nemer, a forest health expert at the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK). "This insect attacks the cones over three years. It doesn't just reduce productivity, it wipes it out."

In some cases, up to 82% of a cone's seed pods are left as empty shells, according to Nemer. Trees weakened by the ravages of climate change are particularly vulnerable.

The insect, Leptoglossus occidentalis, is originally from North America and likely arrived in Lebanon via untreated wooden shipping pallets.

It has since spread across the Mediterranean to Türkiye, and other areas, according to his research.

Livelihoods are under threat in the Bkassine reserve, the Middle East's largest productive pine forest. The trees grow in other parts of Lebanon, but largely not commercially.

For decades, Miled Hareb's family survived on the forest's bounty. That is no longer the case.

"This work was passed down to me. I built my house with it and raised my family with it. But then the trees started dying, and so did our way of life," Hareb told Reuters.

Harvesting pine cones is grueling work. Workers climb towering trees with narrow ladders, balancing on narrow branches without safety gear to collect cones nestled high in the canopy.

Injuries are common and pay has dwindled along with the yields. Nabil Assad, a Syrian laborer who has harvested pine cones in Lebanon for more than a decade, still remembers when up to 250 pine-pickers worked simultaneously in Bkassine.

"Now it's just around 20 or 30 people. There's no work anymore," he said.

A DWINDLING ECOSYSTEM

Most of Lebanon's pine forests were planted hundreds of years ago. These older trees are still within their productive lifespans, but droughts, erratic rainfall and rising temperatures triggered by climate change have made them more vulnerable to the pests.

"A healthy tree can fight back," Nemer said. "But when it's thirsty and starved, it has no defense."

Ahead of this month's COP-30 climate summit in Belem, Brazil, UN officials stressed the importance of shielding forests from pest infestations and other risks, describing forests as "the planet's most powerful natural defense".

Bkassine forest was once home to around 100,000 productive pine trees, according to the UN Development Program.

The number has fluctuated: years of climate stress and pest infestations decreased them and efforts at replanting aimed to offset those losses, but no recent studies offer accurate new figures, Nemer said.

In addition to the cone-eating insect, wood-boring beetles are also killing pines. Dead trees litter the forest floor, attracting more pests and accelerating the decline.

Decades of political and economic turmoil in Lebanon have also taken a toll. After the country's brutal 1975-1990 civil war, state-led forest management fell by the wayside.

Illegal logging has surged since an economic meltdown in 2019.

As productivity drops, market prices have gone up - but few Lebanese can afford them. A kilogram of pine nuts now sells for nearly $100, from around $65 five years ago. Families and even restaurants have swapped out pine nuts for cheaper sliced almonds for Lebanese dishes that call for a crunch.

Efforts to fight back have been slow. Spraying pesticides requires helicopters, which are controlled by the Lebanese army. Logistical delays mean treatments often miss the critical window when insects lay their eggs.

Lebanon's agriculture ministry announced a national spraying campaign for this past August. But Nemer warns that without a broader strategy that involves farmers themselves, it won't be enough.

In Bkassine, farmers are learning to identify pests, report outbreaks and participate in forest management, through training programs led by USEK, the Lebanese Ministry of Agriculture, FAO and the United Nations Environment Program.

"We need to manage the forest as a whole," Nemer said. "This isn't a garden. It's not a farm. It's a living ecosystem."

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'Mimmo' the Dolphin Delights Venice Tourists, Worries Experts

A dolphin nicknamed 'Mimmo' jumps out of the water as people on a boat take pictures in the San Marco Basin, in Venice, Italy, November 8, 2025. REUTERS/Manuel Silvestri
A dolphin nicknamed 'Mimmo' jumps out of the water as people on a boat take pictures in the San Marco Basin, in Venice, Italy, November 8, 2025. REUTERS/Manuel Silvestri
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'Mimmo' the Dolphin Delights Venice Tourists, Worries Experts

A dolphin nicknamed 'Mimmo' jumps out of the water as people on a boat take pictures in the San Marco Basin, in Venice, Italy, November 8, 2025. REUTERS/Manuel Silvestri
A dolphin nicknamed 'Mimmo' jumps out of the water as people on a boat take pictures in the San Marco Basin, in Venice, Italy, November 8, 2025. REUTERS/Manuel Silvestri

A wild dolphin, nicknamed "Mimmo" by the local press, has become a regular visitor in the waters off Venice's St. Mark's Square, captivating tourists but raising concerns about its safety amid heavy marine traffic.

Dolphins are rare visitors to the UNESCO World Heritage city's lagoon, though two were spotted in March 2021 during COVID-19 restrictions that had reduced boat activity.

Mimmo, believed to have entered the lagoon in late June, has been dodging the water buses, taxis, and gondolas in the busy St. Mark's Basin area since last month, according to marine biologist Luca Mizzan, head of Venice's Natural History Museum.

Unusually, the dolphin remains near St. Mark's even when it has fed and appears unfazed by the noise of the boats and crowds, Mizzan told RAI public television.

Experts are concerned that Mimmo could get injured by a boat propeller and are monitoring its movements, but are uncertain how to encourage the dolphin to leave the area, Reuters quoted him as saying.

The approach of winter, which normally drives away fish, may make the lagoon less attractive for Mimmo and encourage it to return to the open sea, Mizzan said, adding there was no way to force it away.

"This animal seems really sure of what it wants to do... It is perfectly capable of going out to sea, but even if we were to escort it, it could come back within a couple of hours."

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Saudi Interior Ministry Issues Special Passport Stamp for Hajj Conference and Exhibition 2025

The Saudi Ministry of Interior issued a special passport stamp for the fifth edition of the Hajj Conference and Exhibition. (SPA)
The Saudi Ministry of Interior issued a special passport stamp for the fifth edition of the Hajj Conference and Exhibition. (SPA)
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Saudi Interior Ministry Issues Special Passport Stamp for Hajj Conference and Exhibition 2025

The Saudi Ministry of Interior issued a special passport stamp for the fifth edition of the Hajj Conference and Exhibition. (SPA)
The Saudi Ministry of Interior issued a special passport stamp for the fifth edition of the Hajj Conference and Exhibition. (SPA)

The Saudi Ministry of Interior, represented by the General Directorate of Passports and in cooperation with the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah, has issued a special passport stamp for the fifth edition of the Hajj Conference and Exhibition, the Saudi Press Agency said on Monday.

The exhibition is held from November 10 to 12 under the patronage of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.

The stamp will be available to travelers arriving in the Kingdom through King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah during the conference period.