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OT:

Isaacman’s Announcements on Lunar Lander

Jared Isaacman, NASA’s newly confirmed administrator, has announced a competitive approach to selecting the lunar lander for the Artemis program. On his first day in office (December 18, 2025), he stated that the company - either SpaceX with its Starship or Blue Origin with its Blue Moon lander - that delivers a functional lunar lander first will be chosen for the mission. This decision prioritizes strategic objectives, particularly beating China to a sustained lunar presence, over existing contract agreements.

Isaacman emphasized urgency, declaring, “whichever lander was available first to ensure that America achieves its strategic objectives on the moon is the one we were going to go with.” This shift intensifies competition between the two companies, especially as SpaceX has faced delays with its Starship Human Landing System (HLS), originally slated for Artemis III in 2027.

NASA lunar lander competition
Jared Isaacman Artemis program statement

[SunkenCiv]

That's it should be. China's as much of a threat as the USSR was in the 1960s. Leftish Scott Manley's 12/25 wrapup is huge.

It's The end of the year, and we have a rocket launch frenzy as everyone closes out their calendar. SpaceX, China, even Rocket Lab gets 3 more launches in. However for all the launch activity the most important event is in the US government where Jared Isaacman steps into the NASA Administrator role and Trump signs an executive order with new goals for US space policy.

Year End Rocket Launch Frenzy!
NASA Administrator Takes Control
- Deep Space Update - Dec 23rd | 31:47
Scott Manley | 1.82M subscribers | 190,254 views | December 24, 2025

0:00 - Hullo, it's Scott Manley here!
0:31 - Starlink Launches
0:58 - Guowang Launches
1:20 - The More Interesting Launches!
12:14 - Long March 12A's First Flight
13:30 - Soyuz MS-27 Returns to Earth
14:04 - Blue Origin flies NS-37
15:09 - Crew 12 Announced!
15:29 - Starship at Launch Complex 37 16:08 - NASA loses contact with MAVEN?
17:02 - SpaceX Goes Public???
17:40 - Aetherflux's Space Datacenters
17:55 - Space Force Mission Naming Scheme
19:04 - Impulse Space's Remora Mission
19:48 - NASA to test Starshield
20:31 - A new private space station?
21:20 - Russia's ISS Successor
22:41 - Repairs at Baikonur
23:11 - Astrobotic's Test Rockets
24:05 - Isaacman Becomes NASA Admin!
26:05 - New Executive Order on Space
28:27 - Artemis II Rehearsal
29:33 - Tory Bruno leaves ULA?!
31:22 - Fly Safe!