NASA is losing four key senior officials close to its flagship moon program, according to people familiar with the changes, adding more uncertainty over the agency's space exploration trajectory as Elon Musk and President Donald Trump play up missions to Mars.

NASA in a Wednesday news release revealed that associate administrator Jim Free—a major figure in the Artemis moon mission program and a vocal defender of the agency’s lunar exploration efforts—will step down, effective Saturday. The Artemis III lunar landing is tentatively scheduled for mid-2027.

Four NASA senior officials working on the agency’s moon program, Artemis, will retire this week. These officials were part of the team that succeeded in launching Artemis I as “the first flight test of the integrated Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket,

The US space agency is losing four senior officials, insiders say, including a key defender of the Artemis missions Nasa is losing four key senior officials close to its flagship moon programme, according to people familiar with the changes,