Russia Delays Luna-26, Venus Missions Due to Sanctions

Russia has postponed its Luna-26 lunar mission from 2027 to 2028 due to the need to redesign the spacecraft after the failure of Luna-25, which relied on Western components now restricted by sanctions. Follow-up missions Luna-27.1 and Luna-27.2 are also delayed by a year, with additional setbacks affecting Russia's Venus mission now scheduled for 2036 instead of 2031. Meanwhile, NASA is advancing its Artemis program, aiming to return humans to the Moon by 2027 and develop technologies such as nuclear fission power systems to support sustained lunar and Martian exploration. NASA has also been directed to build a nuclear reactor on the Moon by the mid-2030s as part of a renewed space race against Russia and China to establish a foothold on the lunar surface. Artemis II will test the Orion spacecraft with a human crew on a nearly 10-day orbital mission around the Moon, setting the stage for deeper space exploration. Additionally, the U.S. Space Force's X-37B space plane is conducting missions near the Moon to assess GPS signal strength, further supporting lunar operations.