NASA's Artemis program, once envisioned to return astronauts to the moon, is increasingly under fire as costs balloon and delays drag on.

Spending nearly $100 billion since its inception, the program has yet to launch a crew into space. Critics-from fiscal watchdogs to some space enthusiasts-lament that the project has devolved into a financial boondoggle-the ultimate pig in a poke-over other scientific missions.

At the heart of the matter is NASA's ill-fated Space Launch System, the rocket that the agency is developing to carry astronauts back to the Moon under the Artemis program.

The SLS has already cost an eye-watering $23.8 billion, and the agency's inspector general fears that each launch could cost more than $4 billion, a sum far higher than the services provided by private industry firms like SpaceX.

MOREOVER, the SLS cannot land directly on the lunar surface astronauts. It will instead put into orbit the Orion spacecraft from where astronauts have to transfer to a lunar lander to complete the mission.

The Orion spacecraft alone is said to have been budgeted at $20 billion and has been plagued with technical issues, such as with its heat shield.

Moreover, the Gateway space station, under construction to assist future missions to the moon, has brought in additional controversy mainly because of its cost: $5 billion and vague role.

But as costs go up and no end is in sight, critics see the crutch of Artemis cutting into other hopeful ventures, the Venus Veritas mission being one and the NEO Surveyor telescope, among others. The call is for a review from the next US president: do the private companies like SpaceX get a bigger bang for the buck by doing lunar missions?.

With a bigger budget comes the big question of accountability with many inquiring if the US should put more emphasis on space discovery rather than manned spaceflight, whose costs are astronomical.