Keith’s note: In an update today NASA Administrator Isaacman announced that Artemis III will not land on the Moon but will be a test mission in Earth orbit for docking with lander vehicles. The push is for moving to two lunar landing attempts in 2028 and will focus on achieving a launch cadence of 1 year or less. NASA will adopt a more or less identical SLS as a standard at the Block 1 configuration. Workforce additions will be needed to adjust NASA’s skill mix. No mention of what happens to Gateway. NASA press release.
Biologist, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Biologist and Payload integrator, Editor of NASAWatch.com and Astrobiology.com, Lapsed climber, Explorer, Synaesthete, Former Challenger Center board member... More by Keith Cowing
Sounds good.
Almost a redo of Apollo which had 4 manned missions before the A11 Moon landing.
Plus unmanned CSM and LM flights and 2 unmanned SV flights.
Only problem is so far they seem to be straining to get to an SLS/Orion flight every 4 years.
Remember for Apollo it was a top priority program. NASA got the best people from industry, academia, military, wherever they could find them. The people were heavy on R&D and many had lived through WWII so they had developed and then modified hardware in accordance with the nation’s needs. By comparison NASA really has not had anyone who has developed much of anything in recent years. NASA put a lot of people in charge of programs who apparently did not understand things like weight growth-aerospace hardware grows in weight/mass the more sophisticated it is and the longer it takes. The same managers apparently did not understand the rocket equation. They pursued the Ares 1 SRB booster which was a little like chasing their tail-they could not reach orbit. We wound up with an Orion that can’t really orbit the Moon. A larger rocket engine than a Shuttle OMS engine would have helped but even more serious is the lack of propulsive capability because of the small fuel tanks.
I guess the Ops people they put in charge thought that if they wished it, it would come true.
We’ll see how it works out in the next 3 years.
On one hand, NASA ended up getting a similar FY26 budget to FY25, but on the other hand the massive brain drain that took place due to the shenanigans cannot be overstated. It will take time to return to the previous baseline of knowledge, capability, and cadence, let alone trying to increase cadence to be like SpaceX. NASA isn’t vertically integrated. The expectations from govt and the public are completely different. It HAS to go right the first time or heads will roll and funding will be cut. There’s no leeway to fail forward. Hopefully a new and better era of NASA can replace the old guard but only time will tell. From what I’ve seen personally from the new generations, I’m not holding my breath. The limited young and bright minds are all going to SpaceX and other companies.