NASA's quest to put boots back on the moon will likely get less urgent after  President-elect Joe Biden takes office next month.

Through its Artemis program, the space agency has been working to land two astronauts, including the first-ever female moonwalker, near the lunar south pole by 2024. That ambitious deadline, which was announced by Vice President Mike Pence in 2019, will likely be relaxed under the Biden administration, experts say.

"I expect the 2024 goal to go away," space policy expert John Logsdon, a professor emeritus of political science and international affairs at George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs in Washington, D.C., told Space.com.