Back to Space!
Artemis 2
The countdown for NASA’s Artemis II test flight is underway at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with members of the launch team arriving at their consoles inside the Rocco Petrone Launch Control Center. The onsite countdown clock started ticking down at 4:44 p.m. EDT to a targeted launch time of 6:24 p.m. on Wednesday, April 1. Artemis II is the first crewed launch of NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft.
Jared Isaacman
New NASA head Jared Isaacman faces his first big test this week with the launch of Artemis, a crucial milestone in the race to beat China and return Americans to the moon.
“The Artemis program picks up where Apollo left off,” Isaacman told POLITICO’s Dasha Burns in an interview on The Conversation podcast. “Not to return to the moon, to plant the flag and pick up the rocks again, but to build an enduring presence, to build a moon base so we can realize the scientific and economic value of being on the lunar surface.”
