Experts have been hopeful, but say the agency’s lunar aspirations are largely at the whims of two billionaires, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.

Almost forgotten now, the mission circled the Earth for 10 days, performing a series of tests with the lunar lander. What it lacked in glory it made up for in technological contributions.

Artemis III is the third in a series of missions that gets humans closer to returning to the surface of the moon.

NASA’s Artemis program has little room for error if it is to land astronauts on the moon by the end of 2028, but Blue Origin could be out of commission for at least a year.