Tag: Artemis
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Trump White House drops diversity plan for Moon landing it created back in 2019
About five years ago, the Trump-appointed administrator of NASA, Jim Bridenstine, revealed the name of the program that would return humans to the Moon. It was to be Artemis, from a Greek goddess who was the twin sister of Apollo. The symbolism was clear. NASA’s second human program to the Moon would be different: We…
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Here’s the secret to how Firefly was able to nail its first lunar landing
Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost science station accomplished a lot on the Moon in the last two weeks. Among other things, its instruments drilled into the Moon’s surface, tested an extraterrestrial vacuum cleaner, and showed that future missions could use GPS navigation signals to navigate on the lunar surface. These are all important achievements, gathering data…
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Firefly’s picture-perfect Moon landing shows the way for lunar exploration
Firefly Aerospace became the first commercial company to make a picture-perfect landing on the Moon early Sunday, touching down on an ancient basaltic plain, named Mare Crisium, to fulfill a $101 million contract with NASA. The lunar lander, called Blue Ghost, settled onto the Moon’s surface at 2:34 am CST (3:34 am EST; 08:34 UTC). A…
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SpaceX readies a redo of last month’s ill-fated Starship test flight
SpaceX plans to launch the eighth full-scale test flight of its enormous Starship rocket as soon as Monday after receiving regulatory approval from the Federal Aviation Administration. The test flight will be a repeat of what SpaceX hoped to achieve on the previous Starship launch in January, when the rocket broke apart and showered debris…
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NASA leaders, Artemis contractors argue importance of architecture continuity for returning to the Moon
The Artemis 2 crew, standing in from of their Artemis spacecraft, discusses their planned around-the-moon flight with reporters at the Kennedy Space Center. Left to right: commander Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now. While assembly of the Space Launch System rocket continues at the Kennedy Space…
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Here’s what NASA would like to see SpaceX accomplish with Starship this year
SpaceX plans to launch the seventh full-scale test flight of its massive Super Heavy booster and Starship rocket Thursday afternoon. It’s the first of what might be a dozen or more demonstration flights this year as SpaceX tries new things with the most powerful rocket ever built. There are many things on SpaceX’s Starship to-do…
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Launch Roundup: New Glenn and Starship headline a week dominated by SpaceX missions
SpaceX dominated this week’s launch manifest with two Falcon 9 missions and the seventh flight of its Starship rocket. The two Falcon 9 missions will see the launches of a Transporter rideshare mission, and two Moon landers. Blue Origin’s New Glenn achieved orbit on Thursday morning following the scrub of its maiden flight attempt on…
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A taller, heavier, smarter version of SpaceX’s Starship is almost ready to fly
An upsized version of SpaceX’s Starship mega-rocket rolled to the launch pad early Thursday in preparation for liftoff on a test flight next week. The two-mile transfer moved the bullet-shaped spaceship one step closer to launch Monday from SpaceX’s Starbase test site in South Texas. The launch window opens at 5 pm EST (4 pm…
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NASA’s boss-to-be proclaims we’re about to enter an “age of experimentation”
ORLANDO, Florida—On Wednesday, Jared Isaacman made his first public appearance since his nomination earlier this month to become NASA’s next administrator. Although his remarks were short on specifics, Isaacman endorsed a vision that would signal radical departures from the way NASA does business. He talked of commercial investment, a thriving space economy, and going fast…
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Artemis II rescheduled for spring of 2026 as program decides on path forward
The Artemis II mission, humanity’s first crewed mission to the vicinity of the Moon since 1972, will wait longer to get off the ground. Originally planned for September 2025, Artemis II will now fly no earlier than April 2026 but will fly with the original Orion command module and heat shield. A heat shield replacement…