I think after Artemis 3 they are supposed to have regular annual trips or something happening to the moon. Their window opens on April first but it could be later if they have issues. Here are some NASA livestream links
I think after Artemis 3 they are supposed to have regular annual trips or something happening to the moon. Their window opens on April first but it could be later if they have issues. Here are some NASA livestream links
Cool, they’re reproducing something they did 60 years ago with primitive tech, at 1000x the price. Quite the accomplishment.
I understand your cynicism, but these missions are ones for which the astronauts have trained for years. The fact that we go to space at all is one of the few things we do as a species that is a feat we can celebrate, and NASA is still in the business of science, rather than billionaire joyrides to space.
The sheer amount of effort that has gone into space exploration and what we’ve learned each time is awe-inspiring, and it’s something we’ve collectively done, in spite of all the dumb politicking and arbitrary land boundaries.
I’m not celebrating the expensive indulgences of Billionaires, who are more interested in showing off with billion dollar expenditures than do ANYTHING to help their fellow citizens.
Imagine if all these rich douchebags decided that instead sending more trash into space, they pledged the same money to end homelessness, end poverty, end hunger, and make everyone healthy?
Once that’s accomplished, then go ahead, spend the rest on giant fireworks into space, and I’ll cheer. But to do that BEFORE saving everybody else is just self-indulgent, and gross.
I’m not celebrating billionaire expenditures either. NASA does science, though, and is not a billionaire. The Artemis missions aren’t a billionaire’s idea. They are the product of scientific curiosity, and in this ultracapitalist hellscape, science and research still costs money.
Now to be fair, the program cost $93bil…but over 13 years (plus an additional $4.3bil over four launches). By comparison, ICE got $85bil in just a year, and the US DoW budget (because it sure isn’t defense) is $175bil just for 2026; over 13 years, they’d be $1.1tril and $2.3tril, respectively. These missions are a drop in the bucket versus the kind of money they could be spending on science and social programs.
Could you spend $93+4bil on social programs? Absolutely. But I vote cutting the budgets of actively harmful departments first, whose budgets are 10-20x that of these scientific ones.
I remember people freaking out about the cost of the Curiosity rover, but it cost less than Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign.
While you are correct, NASA cannot send people to high earth orbit without endangering the astronauts. The crewed missions are dead in the water, but many do not realize this.
This situation exists because while NASA has increasingly severe political issues; the organization still has enough integrity to scrub the missions each time they are close to launch.
Other countries and private companies can later send astronauts safely. Nasa will require changes in American politics, that are not realistic, before they can get new ships and goals
How mich of it was space cowboy behavior vs security?