“The program has made progress, but the Artemis schedule poses challenges. Artemis II and III launches (planned for September 2025 and 2026, respectively): EGS is making progress refurbishing the Mobile Launcher 1 – the structure used to transport and launch key systems – and modifying elements to support crew during these missions. New capabilities are taking longer than planned, and the program has only limited time to address potential issues. Artemis IV launch (planned for September 2028): EGS has made some progress toward this mission, such as modifying facilities to accommodate processing and launching the larger Space Launch System (SLS) Block 1B launch vehicle. However, much work remains, some of which cannot start until after the Artemis III launch.” Full report NASA Artemis Missions: Exploration Ground Systems Program Could Strengthen Schedule Decisions

Source: PSI Planetary Exploration Newsletter: “As many of you will have seen, earlier this week NASA made the shocking decision to cancel the VIPER project following completion of the rover’s build. It now faces the prospect of being dismembered. We have organized an open letter to Congress from the wider science community asking them to refuse any request to cancel this mission, by ensuring that it continues to be included as a budgetary line-item. You can find this letter here: https://forms.gle/XDSzTra4NPSS1VC27 If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the letter’s organizers, Dr Benjamin Fernando ([email protected]) or Dr Parvathy Prem ([email protected]) who have organized this letter in a personal capacity.”

Keith’s note: I was just on Deutsche Welle talking about the return flight of China’s Chang’e-6 sample return mission. [Audio] I am booked to appear on CNN tomorrow (Wed) morning to talk about Boeing’s Starliner CFT-1 mission, China’s Chang’e-6, and SpaceX’s fourth flight of StarShip. And then I will be on a bit later on Bloomberg to do live launch coverage. Lots of spacey news items this week.

Keith’s note: A few weeks ago a robotic explorer named Odysseus completed a journey – one not unlike its mythological human namesake undertook – and struggled ashore at the south pole of the Moon. While injured and out of sorts for a while, Odysseus managed to accomplish much of what it had been tasked to do – starting with a precision landing in a place no human or droid has ever visited before. The way that Odysseus made it to the lunar surface involved some truly heroic thinking the mission control team – rather fitting for a space droid named after a hero.

Keith’s note: The first launch of a ULA Vulcan rocket – powered by Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman engines – took off this morning at 2:18 a.m. EST and has sent the Astrobotic Pergegrine lander on its way to the Moon. Alas it is having communications and power issues which they managed to fix that but there there are critical propulsion system issues. I am going to be on Deutsche Welle TV just after 12:00 pm EST Update: [Deutsche Welle Audio] – and then on Alhurra TV around 2:45 pm EST Update: [Alhurra audio] – then BBC World News TV at 3:45 pm EST and then Deutsche Welle TV (again) just after 6:00 pm today Update: [second Deutsche Welle Audio] to talk about the mission and the various things on board the Peregrine lander. More from NASA

Keith’s note: I really had fun today on i24 TV in Israel (again) today talking about the ESA proposal for a time zone on the Moon with Ellie Hochenberg. Audio. Video Link below

Keith’s note: I was just on Al Jazeera Arabic talking about the various countries and companies that are headed to the Moon. Sometimes there is competition. More often there is collaboration. You’ll hear me drop little doses of soft power here and there. Audio

Keith’s note: I am trying to wrap my head around this thing that NASA Administrator Senator Bill Nelson keeps saying. Is the State Department putting him up to this? They do not seem to be doing any arm waving about it. Just Nelson. Oddly I do not seem to see anyone else saying it – except in some articles in China who think that America is trying to do the same thing in reaction to Bill Nelson making these claims.

According to ‘We’re in a space race’: Nasa sounds alarm at Chinese designs on moon published by the Guardian “The US is locked in a space race with China and the country needs to “watch out” that its rival does not gain a foothold and try to dominate lunar resources, Nasa’s top official has warned. The assessment came from the Nasa administrator, Bill Nelson, a former astronaut and Florida senator, who went on to warn that China could eventually claim to “own” the moon’s resource-rich areas.The contest between the US and China, he added, was intensifying and the next two years could determine which country achieves an advantage. “It is a fact: we’re in a space race,” Nelson told Politico. “And it is true that we better watch out that they don’t get to a place on the moon under the guise of scientific research. And it is not beyond the realm of possibility that they say, ‘Keep out, we’re here, this is our territory.’

As NASA prepares to send astronauts back to the Moon under Artemis, the agency has identified 13 candidate landing regions near the lunar South Pole. Each region contains multiple potential landing sites for Artemis III.

On Wednesday at around 7:30 a.m. EDT the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft for the Artemis I mission arrived atop Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida after a nearly 10-hour journey from the Vehicle Assembly Building. More: Artemis I Moon Rocket Arrives at Launch Pad