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“Our test facilities can’t reach the combination of heat flux, pressure, shear stresses, etc., that an actual reentering spacecraft does. We’re always having to wait for the flight test to get the final certification that our system is good to go.”—Jeremy VanderKam, deputy manager for Orion’s heat shield, speaking in 2022 On Wednesday, NASA will attempt to send four astronauts around the moon on a mission called Artemis II. This will be second flight of NASA’s SLS rocket, and the first time the 20-year-old Orion capsule flies with people on board. The trouble is that the heat shield on Orion...

Join us as the Artemis II crew answers questions from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, where they're in protective quarantine ahead of their upcoming flight around the Moon. NASA's Artemis II Q&A from Quarantine | 53:49 NASA | 12.8M subscribers | 20,828 views | March 29 2026(Streamed live 2 hours ago)

In space news this week Stoke Space moves one step closer toward the inaugural launch of their Nova rocket, Rocket Lab releases their quarterly report and launches a hypersonic test vehicle, the Artemis II SLS is rolled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building and NASA announces major changes to the Artemis program. Rocket Lab Releases Update on First-of-Its-Kind Neutron Rocket - Avid Space Spaceflight Update | 4:40 Avid Space | 249K subscribers | 8,755 views | March 3, 2026

NASA has repaired its Artemis 2 rocket, apparently keeping things on track for a possible April launch of the first crewed moon mission in more than 50 years. Engineers made a fix that aims to restore consistent helium flow to the upper stage of Artemis 2's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, agency officials announced in an update on Tuesday (March 3). "Work on the rocket and spacecraft will continue in the coming weeks as NASA prepares for rolling the rocket out to the launch pad again later this month ahead of a potential launch in April," NASA wrote in the...

In an interview with News 5 Cleveland's Clay LePard, Isaacman talked about jobs at ‪@NASA‬ Glenn Research Facility in Cleveland, putting Americans back on the moon by 2028, plans for a base on the moon by 2030 and how humans will be on Mars within our lifetimes. Full interview with NASA Administrator Jared Isaacmanat the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland | 10:48News 5 Cleveland | 354K subscribers | 3,933 views | January 27, 2026

While two names are cited repeatedly as top candidates for Artemis 2, a four-person moon mission, no official confirmation will come until at least late spring. A portion of the far side of the Moon looms large just beyond the Orion spacecraft in this image taken on the sixth day of the Artemis 1 mission by a camera on the tip of one of Orion’s solar arrays. (Image credit: NASA) ************************************************************************************* NASA will soon name the astronauts on its first crewed moon mission since 1972. Artemis 2 is the next flight after the agency's uncrewed Artemis 1 mission, which launched...