Space

April 6 (UPI) — The four crew members of the Artemis II mission entered the moon’s sphere of influence early Monday, marking the start of their lunar flyby.

The Orion spacecraft reached what is called the lunar sphere of influence at about 12:41 a.m. ET Monday, meaning the moon’s gravitational forces on the capsule were greater than those of Earth.

The mission launched Wednesday from Florida, and it took the spacecraft four days, six hours, two minutes and 54 seconds to cross the important gravitational milestone, the first crewed mission to enter the moon’s sphere of influence since Apollo 17 in 1972.

About 13 hours later, at 1:56 p.m., the four-person crew of NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Cristina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen will have surpassed the record for the farthest humans have traveled from Earth, which was previously set by Apollo 13 in 1970.

The spacecraft is expected to start its flyby of the moon at about 2:45 p.m. Monday, when a seven-hour lunar observation period will begin.

NASA said the crew will see both the near and far sides of the moon during this period. As window space is limited, the crew will be divided into pairs that will conduct between 55- and 85-minute observation shifts, it said.

Mission control sent the crew the final list of lunar surface features to be observed and photographed during the flyby early Sunday, according to NASA.

The astronauts will be tasked with observing about 30 targets, including the Orientale basin, a nearly 600-mile-wide crater that spans the boundary between the moon’s near and far sides, NASA said.

“The crew will study Orientale’s features up close and from multiple angles as they pass by,” the space agency said in a Sunday evening blog post.

Orion is expected to reach its closest approach to the moon at 4,070 miles at 7:02 p.m. only to reach its maximum distance from Earth during the mission minutes later.

The lunar observation period is expected to come to an end at 9:20 p.m.

At about 1:25 p.m. Tuesday, Orion will have exited the lunar sphere of influence en route home.

The 10-day moon flyby mission is to conclude with a splashdown off the coast of San Diego at about 8:07 p.m. Friday.

April 5 (UPI) — The four astronauts of the Artemis II mission were woken on Sunday by the sounds “Working Class Heroes (Work)” by CeeLo Green, and they will go to sleep as their spacecraft enters its sphere of gravitational influence.

Day 5 of NASA’s first journey to the moon in more than 50 years remained on course Sunday morning after maneuvering the Orion space capsule in its precise course to ricochet around the far side of the moon before heading back to Earth.

The crew is roughly half-way through its ten-day mission to test the abilities of the Orion space capsule and make direct observations of the far side of the moon, all of which will take them farther from Earth than any human has previously traveled.

The crew’s work for Sunday includes a full sequence of space suit operations and preparations for their approach to the moon, as well as their responsibilities during the five-hour trip around its back side, NASA said.

“We’re going to work!” NASA said in a post on X around 12:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday that the astronauts were hearing the day’s wake-up song, which the agency has been announcing each day of the mission.

In addition to the wake-up song, the astronauts were greeted this “morning” with an audio message from Apollo 16 astronaut Charlie Duke, who in 1972 became the 10th person to walk on the moon at age 36.

“Below you, on the moon, is a photo of my family,” Duke said in the 46-second recording, which the crew posted to X. “I pray it reminds you that we, in America, and all of the world, are cheering you on. Thanks for building on our Apollo legacy with Artemis.”

The suits are designed to protect astronauts during “dynamic” phases of space flight, can keep them alive should the Orion’s cabin depressurize and are designed to provide life support after splashing down in the ocean when they return to Earth.

The demonstration, like many of the other tasks the Artemis II crew is conducting, are meant to inform later Artemis missions to land on the moon and eventually build a human base there.

Although the crew was able to skip two other planned correctional burns on the way to entering the moon’s gravitational influence, an outbound trajectory correction burn is still planned for later today.

The final lunar science targets that the astronauts will be inspecting, photographing and analyzing will be sent from mission control and the crew will prepare to actually enter the moon’s gravity.

Canadian Space Agency President Lisa Campbell expresses her pride as the Artemis II moon orbiting mission carries the first Canadian to the moon along with three Americans. She also discusses the significance of this mission.

April 4 (UPI) — NASA announced Saturday that the four astronauts of the Artemis II mission were closer to moon than to the Earth.

NASA shared photos from the mission on X, declaring that the astronauts were officially “moonbound.”

“Artemis II astronauts are more than halfway to their destination, and preparations for lunar flyby are underway,” NASA said. “During the trip around the far side of the moon, they will capture imagery to share with scientists (and you, too!).

The photos included two images of the moon and one of the interior of the Orion capsule as the astronauts worked and looked out at space.

“We can see the moon out of the docking hatch right now. It’s a beautiful sight,” an earlier NASA post quoting the astronauts said.

On Sunday, Artemis II is expected to reach the lunar sphere of influence, meaning the moon’s gravity will be stronger than Earth’s on the spacecraft.

The astronauts are expected to make their flyby of the moon on Monday, coming to within 6,000 miles of the lunar surface. They’ll fly around the far side of the moon for about 6 hours, taking photos and making observations. During this time, the astronauts will lose communication with Earth for about 30 to 50 minutes.

Tuesday marks the start of Artemis II’s four-day return to Earth, and splashdown is scheduled for Friday.

April 3 (UPI) — NASA’s Artemis II crew left Earth orbit Thursday evening en route for the moon, marking a milestone not reached in more than 50 years.

The Orion spacecraft began a scheduled 5-minute, 50-second burn at 7:49 p.m. EDT, successfully propelling it and its four-person crew out of Earth orbit.

“Nominal translunar injection burn complete. The Artemis II crew is officially on the way to the moon,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced on social media.

“America is back in the business of sending astronauts to the moon. This time, farther than ever before.”

The crew of NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen launched Wednesday evening from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center.

It is the first crewed mission to travel farther than low-Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972.

The long-awaited exit from Earth orbit signaled that humankind is now on a trajectory to its closest celestial body, the moon at an average of 238,855 miles away.

“I got to tell you, there is nothing normal about this: sending four humans 250,000 miles away is a Herculean effort, and we are just realizing the gravity of that,” Reid said in a press conference after exiting orbit.

Asked what they are most excited about when they near the moon, Koch simply said it was views.

“Having just experienced incredible views of planet Earth and seeing the entire planet out the window in one pane, knowing that we’re about to have some similar views of the moon in that same way is definitely getting me more excited for it,” she said.

“I knew that that is what we would see, but there is nothing that prepares you for the breathtaking aspect of seeing your home planet both lit up bright as day and also the moon glow on it at night with the beautiful beam of the sunset and knowing we are going to get similar views of the moon, I’m just really excited for that.”

The Orion spacecraft is now on its way to the moon where the crew will perform a flyby, during which they will take high-resolution photographs and provide personal observations of the lunar surface, including the far side of the moon, NASA said.

After the flyby is completed, the four-person crew will begin their return to Earth, completing their 10-day deep-space journey with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on April 10.

The mission, in essence, is a crewed rehearsal for a future lunar landing, targeted for early 2028.

April 2 (UPI) — The Artemis II astronauts have completed their perigee raise burn as part of a planned orbital adjustment and are headed back into a four-hour rest period, NASA said.

After an earlier rest period, the astronauts were awakened at 7:06 a.m. EDT for the perigee burn. NASA played the song “Sleepyhead” by Young and Sick to wake them up.

In the perigee burn, the spacecraft lit its main engine for 43 seconds, which raised the lowest point of its orbit. This helps prevent the craft from re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere. It also refines the trajectory of the craft as it circles Earth. It put Orion into a stable high-Earth orbit, which aligns with its path to the moon.

The crew will now have another four-and-a-half-hour rest period, then they will be awakened to start their first full day in space.

Later today, the mission management team will have its first meeting of the mission to assess the spacecraft’s systems and will give its approval for the upcoming translunar injection burn. That burn will send astronauts out of Earth’s orbit and toward the Moon for the first time in 50 years. It will last just over six minutes and will speed the craft to escape Earth’s gravitational pull.

The launch on Wednesday evening began at 6:35 p.m. EDT from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Soon after launch, Wiseman told operators on the ground, “We have a beautiful moonrise, we’re headed right at it.”

There was a small glitch in the craft’s space toilet, Space.com reported.

“The toilet fan is reported to be jammed,” NASA spokesperson Gary Jordan said during live mission commentary. “Now the ground teams are coming up with instructions on how to get into the fan and clear that area to revive the toilet for the mission.”

NASA Director of Flight Operations Norm Knight told reporters that the problem was a controller issue on the toilet in urine collection. The astronauts were able to use a backup system until the engineers fixed the problem before their first rest period.

About 9 minutes after the launch, the crew entered Earth’s orbit, traveling about 15,000 mph. They are expected to enter the moon’s orbit in about six days, travel around it and then return to Earth.

The four-person crew are: NASA’s Commander Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen.

NASA has successfully launched the Artemis II mission, marking the first crewed mission to the moon’s vicinity since the Apollo programme ended in 1972.

The 322-foot Space Launch System (SLS) rocket lifted off at 6:35pm ET (22:35 GMT) on Wednesday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, sending the Orion crew capsule on a 10-day journey.

While Artemis II will not land on the moon, it will fly a “free-return” trajectory that swings around it to prove the spacecraft can sustain a crew on future missions.

The idea is to descend to the surface of the Earth’s only natural satellite again on Artemis IV in 2028.

“We have a beautiful moonrise,” said Reid Wiseman, the NASA astronaut serving as mission commander, about five minutes after the launch. “We’re heading right at it.”

Here is what we know:

What happened?

The Artemis II mission launched successfully from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, sending four astronauts on a historic journey around the moon, the first crewed mission beyond low-Earth orbit in more than 50 years.

The launch followed a tense countdown, as engineers worked through several technical issues. Teams closely monitored the rocket during fuelling due to hydrogen leaks that had delayed the mission in the past, but no major leaks were detected on launch day.

Engineers also resolved last-minute problems involving battery sensors and the rocket’s flight termination system, a critical safety system used to destroy the rocket if it goes off course, before clearing the mission for liftoff.

The 32-storey rocket lifted off in the early evening in front of large crowds gathered near the launch site. The crew are now on a mission that will take them around the moon and back to Earth.

The launch had been planned for as early as February 6, and then March 6, until a hydrogen leak prompted NASA to ‌roll the ⁠rocket back to its vehicle assembly building for scrutiny.

It had earlier been scheduled for November 2024, but NASA announced a delay due to technical investigations, particularly into the Orion’s heat shield.

Who is part of the Artemis II mission?

All three NASA astronauts are veterans of Earth-orbit science expeditions to the International Space Station, while the lone Canadian joining them on a voyage around the moon and back is a spaceflight rookie.

• Reid Wiseman, 50, commander: The NASA veteran and former International Space Station commander is leading the Artemis II mission. A test pilot-turned-astronaut, he has leadership and deep spaceflight experience.
• Victor Glover, 49, pilot: The US Navy aviator is the first Black astronaut assigned to a lunar mission and flew on SpaceX Crew-1.
• Christina Koch, 47, mission specialist: The record holder for the longest single spaceflight by a woman at 328 days is a veteran of multiple spacewalks and has scientific and deep-space mission expertise.
• Jeremy Hansen, 50, mission specialist: The first Canadian set to travel to the moon is a former fighter pilot. His presence represents international collaboration in deep space exploration.

When will the mission reach the moon?

If the mission goes as planned, the capsule is expected to reach the moon on about April 6, the sixth day of the mission.

The crewed Orion capsule will then fly around the moon, reaching its closest point before beginning the journey back to Earth, with splashdown expected on April 10, 2026.

What is the mission plan for the next 10 days?

The Artemis II mission is expected to last about 10 days and follows this general outline:

Days 1-2 high Earth orbit : The crew will spend their first one to two days in high Earth orbit conducting extensive checks on the spacecraft’s systems.

Once those checks are complete, Orion’s propulsion system will perform a “translunar injection”.

A translunar injection is a critical manoeuvre performed by the Orion spacecraft’s propulsion system. Occurring after the crew completes their initial systems checks in high Earth orbit, this manoeuvre propels the spacecraft out of Earth orbit and sets it onto a direct trajectory towards the moon.

Days 3-4 translunar transit: As they transit to the moon over the next several days, the astronauts will continue monitoring Orion’s systems.

The spacecraft will then pass behind the moon on a “free-return” trajectory, a strategic path that naturally swings the capsule back towards Earth without requiring any additional propulsion.

Day 5 lunar sphere of influence: Orion enters the moon’s gravitational pull, which becomes stronger than Earth’s.

The astronauts will spend the first several hours of the day testing their spacesuits, including practising how quickly they can put them on, pressurising them and strapping into their seats.

Day 6 lunar flyby: This is the day the crew fly by the moon.

The spacecraft reaches its closest approach, approximately 4,000-6,000 miles (6,450-9,650km) above the lunar surface.

Day 7-9 Return journey: Following the flyby, Orion remains on its free-return trajectory. The crew conducts deep-space science, including medical monitoring through programmes like ARCHER.

Day 10 Re-entry and splashdown: Orion separates from the service module and re-enters Earth’s atmosphere at roughly 25,000mph (40,230km/h). The mission concludes with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

What’s NASA’s next mission?

Artemis III is the next mission and is currently planned for 2027.

It will involve the Orion spacecraft docking in Earth orbit with at least one of NASA’s lunar landers, either Blue Origin’s Blue Moon system or SpaceX’s Starship.

The docking manoeuvre is intended to demonstrate how the landers will collect astronauts in orbit before transporting them to the moon’s surface.

April 1 (UPI) — NASA launched its most powerful rocket yet, the Space Launch System, on Wednesday to send the crewed Artemis II mission to the moon, the first in more than five decades.

The mission had liftoff around 6:35 p.m. EDT from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Within minutes of liftoff, Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman told operators on the ground, “we have a beautiful moonrise, we’re headed right at it.”

The four-person crew — which also includes NASA’s Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen — is expected to enter the moon’s orbit in about six days. The spacecraft won’t land on the moon, but will orbit around it before returning to Earth.

The 2-hour launch window for Artemis II began around 6:24 p.m., and most of the pre-flight checks were successfully.

Shortly after the crew members boarded the craft, though, NASA officials had to address a pair of issues.

Derrol Nail, of NASA, said officials fixed a problem with the Space Launch System rocket’s flight termination system.

Later, there was a problem with the battery on the launch abort system on Orion. This system ejects the capsule away from the rocket in case there’s a problem with the rocket during flight. NASA detected issues with temperature readings on the battery but had resolved the issue before schedule launch.

The 10-day trip will be the first crewed flight to the moon in more than 50 years and the farthest distance from Earth traveled by humans.

About 9 minutes after the launch, the Artemis crew entered orbit, traveling about 15,000 mph. During Earth orbit, the crew has a series of tasks to complete before they’re able to make their way to the moon.

The Artemis I mission in 2022 flew around the moon but didn’t have a crew aboard.

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,

The mission is a major step in NASA’s plan to return humans to the moon and eventually send astronauts to Mars.

The Artemis II space mission has blasted off from the US state of Florida, sending four astronauts on a historic journey around the moon and marking the first time humans have travelled beyond low-Earth orbit in more than 50 years.

The mission, which launched on Wednesday, is a major step in the US space agency NASA’s plan to return humans to the moon and eventually send astronauts to Mars.

The 32-story rocket rose from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center where tens of thousands gathered to witness the lift-off.

The Artemis II crew – NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen – are set for a nearly 10-day journey around the moon and back, taking them farther into space than humans have travelled in decades.

“On this historic mission, you take with you the heart of this Artemis team, the daring spirit of the American people and our partners across the globe, and the hopes and dreams of a new generation,” said Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, the launch director. “Good luck, Godspeed Artemis II. Let’s go.”

Five minutes into the flight, Wiseman, the commander, saw the team’s target: “We have a beautiful moonrise, we’re headed right at it,” he said from the capsule.

April 1 (UPI) — April’s full pink moon, the first full moon of spring, will be visible Wednesday night.

Peak viewing will be around 10:11 p.m. Wednesday.

Despite the colorful name, the moon will appear in its normal gray cast. It’s hued name is a tribute to the early bloom of Phlox subulata, a wildflower species native to eastern North America. It’s also known as the Paschal Moon because it happens after the spring equinox, according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac. It’s also known as the Breaking Ice Moon and the Budding Moon of Plants and Shrubs.

The next full moon will be on May 1 and is known as the Flower Moon. There will be two full moons in May, a phenomenon commonly known as a “blue moon.”

The moon may still appear full on Thursday, Noah Petro, chief of NASA’s planetary geology, geophysics and geochemistry laboratory at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., told CNN. He suggests finding a place to view the moon away from trees and buildings. The darker the environment, the more you can enjoy the event, he said.

Indigenous peoples call April’s full moon different names, including “kawohni,” meaning flower moon to the Cherokee; “kwiyamuyaw,” meaning moon of windbreak to the Hopi; and “tabehatawi,” meaning frog moon to the Assiniboine, CNN reported.

NASA’s Artemis II launch could also happen Wednesday evening, giving the astronauts a special view of the pink moon.

“When you look at this full moon, the crew may be on their way. They may have just launched,” Petro told CNN. “This will be the last full moon in the pre-Artemis II era, and it will look different not only to the four crew members but to all of us who journey along with them.”

March 30 (UPI) — NASA officials on Monday started the two-day countdown to the Artemis II mission launch, which will send a crew of four around the moon as they test the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft.

After canceling a launch attempt in February because of a helium valve concern, officials said that the only thing they are worried about ahead of Wednesday’s launch is the weather — and the forecast offers an 80% chance for the right conditions.

The 10-day mission, which will take the crew farther from Earth than any human before, is the next step in the agency’s goal of returning humans to the surface of the moon and establishing a permanent presence there.

With mission engineers starting the clock, the crew — Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, Commander Reid Wiseman and Pilot Victor Glover — are getting some rest and spending time with their families before starting their own pre-launch activities, officials said.

“The team concluded that everything continues to look good and there are no issues preventing us from pressing ahead,” NASA’s Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya said during a media briefing from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

“At this point, as we enter the pre-launch phase, we are in a strong posture and the mission remains on track,” he said.

Countdown to launch

The Artemis II launch window starts at 6:24 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, giving NASA two hours if the cumulus cloud cover is too heavy, which mission engineers said is the only thing about the weather forecast they are worried about.

The SLS and Orion was initially rolled out to the launch pad in February but engineers discovered an issue with a helium valve during a wet dress rehearsal and decided to bring the rock back to the Vehicle Assembly Building to check it out.

After replacing the valve, and checking on other systems, the rocket was rolled back out on March 19.

Monday’s mission management team meeting is similar to the flight readiness review but is a faster rundown than that comprehensive effort as each group updates others on their pre-launch progress.

Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, launch director for the mission, said the launch countdown officially started at 4:44 p.m. EDT on Monday, which corresponds with NASA starting to configure ground facilities at the launch pad.

She noted that, while most people are familiar with a 30-minute or 10-minute countdown, launch countdowns are generally linked to the preparation needed for launch — shuttle countdowns started three days before launch, while commercial launches may often need a countdown of one day or less.

Crew awaits launch

The Artemis crew arrived in Cape Canaveral “on Friday, getting an opportunity for some rest before we work them very hard,” Emily Nelson, the mission’s chief flight director, said of the foursome, which has been in quarantine already for a couple of weeks.

Like many crews of astronauts before them, the Artemis crew has been staying at The Astronaut Beach House, which NASA has owned since 1963 and where space mission crews have spent time ahead of launches for decades.

Before the start of their final meetings and prep for launch, the crew was expected to eat dinner and spend time with their families, all of whom also have been required to comply with some sort of quarantine before getting there.

On launch day, after fuel tanking and last-minute items by a closeout crew around 1:00 p.m. EDT, the crew will board the Orion at 2:00 p.m. EDT to conduct communication system checks, configure the crew module and run the countdown to a 10-minute hold for about 30 minutes, Blackwell-Thompson said.

During that 30-minute hold, mission engineers will run through one more system-by-system before starting the final countdown to NASA’s first crewed mission to the moon in more than 50 years.

March 24 (UPI) — NASA on Tuesday announced plans to spend $30 billion on a permanent lunar base and send astronauts to the moon every six months after the Artemis V mission.

Speaking at a so-called “Ignition” event at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., Administrator Jared Isaacman discussed plans to accelerate construction of a moon base.

“There will be an evolutionary path to building humanity’s first permanent surface outpost beyond Earth,” he said.

“NASA is committed to achieving the near-impossible once again: to return to the moon before the end of President [Donald] Trump’s term, build a moon base, establish an enduring presence, and do the other things needed to ensure American leadership in space.”

NASA’s plan was initially to focus on what it called the Gateway program — a space station that was going to orbit the moon. Then the agency would build a base on the moon.

Carlos Garcia-Galan, the program executive for NASA’s Moon Base program, said the systems and hardware already established for the Gateway program would be repurposed to build the moon base.

Isaacman said the moon base plan will comprise three phases.

The first phase would include a series of missions to send small robotic landers and vehicles astronauts can drive on the surface to the moon. It would also encompass communications and scientific instruments.

The second phase would involve the construction of a “semi-habitable infrastructure” for astronauts on the lunar surface.

The third phase would start construction of a more permanent structure.

The first two phases would involve an investment of $20 billion over the next seven years and dozens of missions to the moon. The third phase would cost another $10 billion.

“The moon base will not appear overnight,” Isaacman said.

Isaacman said NASA also plans to launch a nuclear-propelled spacecraft to Mars by 2028.

NASA’s launch window for Artemis II is set to open April. The crewed mission is expected to send the Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft to orbit the moon over 10 days and return to Earth. The crew will test whether the spacecraft operates in deep space.

The long-term goal of the Artemis program is to re-establish a human presence on the moon in preparation for the ultimate aim of putting a human on Mars.

The agency will increase robotic missions to the moon and launch a spacecraft called Space Reactor 1 Freedom.

NASA has unveiled a major overhaul of its moon and Mars strategy, scrapping plans for a lunar-orbit space station and instead committing $20bn over the next seven years to build a base on the moon’s surface, while also advancing plans to send a nuclear-powered spacecraft to Mars.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman outlined the changes on Tuesday during a meeting in Washington, DC, with partners, contractors and government officials involved in the Artemis programme, saying the agency will increase robotic missions to the moon and lay the groundwork for nuclear power on the lunar surface.

Isaacman, appointed by US President Donald Trump and who took charge in December, said the changes form part of a broader overhaul of NASA’s long-term Moon-to-Mars strategy.

The planned moon base is intended to support long-term human presence on the lunar surface, with robotic missions expected to help prepare the site, test technologies and begin building infrastructure before astronauts return later this decade.

The agency also disclosed plans to launch a spacecraft called Space Reactor 1 Freedom before the end of 2028, a mission designed to demonstrate nuclear electric propulsion in deep space on the way to Mars.

The spacecraft will deliver helicopters on the Red Planet, similar to the Ingenuity robotic test helicopter that flew with NASA’s Perseverance rover, a step the agency said would help move nuclear propulsion technology from laboratory testing to operational space missions.

The Ingenuity helicopter was the first aircraft to achieve powered, controlled flight on another planet. It travelled to Mars attached to NASA’s Perseverance rover and landed in February 2021.

Pausing the Lunar Gateway station

The Lunar Gateway station, a planned space station in lunar orbit being developed with contractors including Northrop Grumman and international partners, was meant to serve as a base where astronauts could live and work before heading to the Moon’s surface.

But NASA now plans to repurpose some Gateway components for use on the surface instead.

Repurposing Lunar Gateway to create a base on the moon’s surface leaves uncertain the future roles of Japan, Canada and the ‌European Space ⁠Agency in the Artemis programme, three key NASA partners that had agreed to provide components for the orbital station.

“It should not really surprise anyone that we are pausing Gateway in its current form and focusing on infrastructure that supports sustained operations on the lunar surface,” Isaacman said.

The changes to NASA’s flagship Artemis programme are reshaping billions of dollars’ worth of contracts and come as the United States faces growing competition from China, which is aiming to land astronauts on the moon by 2030.

The Artemis programme, begun in 2017 during Trump’s first term as president, envisions regular lunar missions as NASA’s long-awaited follow-up to its first moon missions in the Apollo programme that ended in 1972.

Space isn’t a forgiving place to be stuck. There’s no air, no pulling over for directions and no margin for error. When something goes wrong, you’re left with whatever you have on hand for however long you can make it last.

That fear drives the new sci-fi epic “Project Hail Mary,” opening in theaters Friday, with Ryan Gosling as Ryland Grace, a middle school science teacher who wakes up alone on a spacecraft light-years from Earth with no memory of how he got there. Gradually he realizes he’s been sent on a mission to figure out why the sun is dimming and how to stop it. What begins in isolation turns into something closer to a buddy movie, as Grace ends up working with an alien he names Rocky, another traveler trying to solve the same problem.

The film, directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, comes from sci-fi author Andy Weir, whose earlier, similarly survival-themed breakthrough novel “The Martian” was adapted by director Ridley Scott in 2015. That movie put Matt Damon alone on Mars and made the act of thinking through one life-or-death problem after another the engine of the story. The result was a critical and commercial hit that earned seven Oscar nominations, including best picture.

Put someone out in space long enough and the story can go in many directions. Sometimes it’s about survival. Sometimes it turns inward. Sometimes it gets more horrific or even darkly comic. Here are eight of our favorite movies about people lost or stranded in space. Watch them somewhere with plenty of oxygen.

A POPULAR holiday destination just a few hours from the UK is getting a huge new £960million airport expansion.

Mohammed V Airport in Casablanca, Morocco is currently expanding its airport with a new terminal which will be able to handle up to 20million passengers a year.

The new terminal will be ‘H’ shaped and is expected to be operational by 2029, in time for the 2030 FIFA World Cup.

It will have three levels with shops, green spaces and an airport hotel.

In addition, the terminal will be connected to Morocco‘s high-speed rail (LGV) network with links to Kenitra and Marrakech.

According to Architects’ Journal, the terminal will feature “sweeping undulations of the roof [evoking] the waves and movement of the Atlantic”.

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The project also includes a 3,700-metre runway, which will run alongside taxiways and a new 42-metre-tall air traffic control tower.

British architecture firm, RSHP – who designed London’s Millennium Dome and Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 5 and control tower – will design the new terminal at Mohammed V Airport.

Ivan Harbour, senior design director at RSHP, said: “The airport will be a celebration of light, warmth and human scale, undulating from grand central spaces to intimate and calming oases, a memorable experience for all travelling through it.

“It will be a state of the art, responsible, building that interprets and celebrates the landscape of its place to create a graceful threshold between Casablanca and the world beyond.”

The airport currently has two terminals and serves around 11.5million passengers each year.

Royal Air Maroc flies direct to Casablanca from London Heathrow with flights starting from £178 one-way.

Though, with the airport expansion there could be more services to the UK in the future.

Casablanca’s main attraction is the Hassan II Mosque, one of the largest mosques in the world.

It also has a popular seaside promenade with lots of hotels and restaurants as well as Habous Quarter (known for its Moorish-style architecture, olive souks and bookstores) and the Old Medina with traditional markets.

The city is pretty cheap as well – a three-course meal for two usually costs around £23.74, while a beer is less than £3.

And the famous 1942 film Casablanca was also set in the city during World War II.

Despite mostly being filmed in studios in California, the film depicts the bustling city of Casablanca when it was used by people fleeing Nazi-occupied Europe.

In other airport news, a major London airport has hiked its drop off fees to £10 – the second highest in the UK.

Plus, these are all the new routes launching from the UK’s biggest and busiest airport this spring and summer.

March 12 (UPI) — The recent, new delay in NASA’s moon landing program represents the latest in a string of technical, budgetary, workforce and public perception challenges that plague the space agency, a UPI analysis shows.

When flight officials pulled the Artemis II Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft off the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center on Feb. 25 after a recurrence of helium flow problems and pushed the launch back to April at the earliest, it served as another reminder of the space agency’s current assortment of formidable problems.

Those issues include a moon program whose timeline keeps slipping; recurring technical failures and cost overruns with its flagship SLS rocket; a commercial lander — SpaceX’s Starship — that has yet to demonstrate reliability; the effective grounding of the Vulcan Centaur rocket made by United Launch Alliance; the departures of thousands of NASA workers and turnover in its top leadership positions.

The agency announced March 3 it had identified the latest problem with Artemis II as a faulty helium seal in the SLS upper stage, and that it is repairing the assembly, as well as making other fixes to the spacecraft.

But meanwhile, the lag time since the last crewed U.S. spaceflight has now stretched to three full years. This lengthy drought has prompted outside analysts and NASA officials to worry about how public support for the space program is being affected.

“When missions occur every few years, it is easy for people to lose interest,” said Burt Dicht, a leader of the National Space Society, who added he backs a newly announced NASA effort to increase the frequency of launches.

The latest delay has prompted a fresh look at some of the major challenges facing the space agency’s moon effort, as well as more general problems.

Headwinds with partners, personnel issues

One of the more pressing issues with the Artemis program is its dependence on SpaceX’s Starship Human Landing System, or HLS, as the initial human lander that will put the first U.S. astronauts on the lunar surface.

Elon Musk’s company signed a contract with NASA in 2021 to provide the lander, but struggled in 2025 to perfect the mammoth Starship V3 rocket necessary for a key element of the HLS mission, according to a report issued by NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel and released last month.

The Starship V3 incorporates upgraded Raptor engines to provide it with the required performance for low-Earth orbit flight and on-orbit operations, and its development is deemed crucial for transferring fuel to an orbiting tanker.

How it performs will “ultimately determine the number of refueling missions required for the HLS mission,” which is now pegged at roughly 12 fueling flights, the report’s authors wrote.

“The development and test progress necessary for a version of Starship that has not yet flown in time to support a human lunar landing mission within the next few years appears daunting and, to the panel, probably not achievable,” they wrote.

SpaceX announced Feb. 26 that the first Starship V3 had left its build site at Boca Chica, Texas, and had begun prelaunch testing.

In 2023, NASA selected Blue Origin, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, to develop a second human landing system to compete with the HLS. Its Blue Moon Mark 2, to be launched aboard a New Glenn rocket, is to be tested twice and then carry a crew to the moon in late 2028.

New critical report

But NASA’s Office of Inspector General, in a report issued Tuesday, looked at both programs to carry astronauts to the moon and advised that the agency faces significant technical and programmatic risks that threaten mission timelines and crew safety.

The report said NASA is not fully adhering to “test like you fly” principles, particularly for uncrewed demonstration missions, and has not yet ensured that SpaceX’s Starship lander will meet manual control requirements for astronauts.

The inspector general also noted gaps in hazard‑mitigation planning and insufficient testing of critical systems, especially given the complexity of both SpaceX’s and Blue Origin’s lander architectures.

The report also warned that NASA the capability to rescue astronauts in the event of a life‑threatening emergency during lunar surface operations, echoing limitations from the Apollo era.

And it concluded that SpaceX and Blue Origin face technical challenges likely to cause additional delays, with SpaceX’s schedule slipping beyond its earlier 2027 target and even the revised 2028 goal remaining uncertain.

The report recommends stronger risk‑management practices, more realistic scheduling and more rigorous testing to ensure crew safety and mission success.

Meanwhile, NASA’s larger operations also could be affected by problems encountered in the new Vulcan Centaur rockets made by United Launch Alliance.

Vulcan launches halted

The U.S. Space Force last week temporarily halted all national security launches using the rocket after the same booster malfunction occurred twice, according to comments made by Col. Eric Zarybnisky at a meeting last month in Colorado.

The Vulcan Centaur program was established by ULA to reduce costs and eliminate reliance on the current workhorse Atlas V Russian-supplied RD-180 engine and is primarily meant to meet U.S. military needs.

But the program benefits NASA as well, giving it greater flexibility and transport capability for launching of payloads, the space agency said.

NASA also continues to struggle with an exodus of workers, including thousands of crucial senior staff, which some analysts believe is impacting its moon and Mars exploration goals due to a loss of expertise.

Nearly 4,000 agency employees last year chose to accept “deferred resignations” as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to slash the federal workforce — a move that reduced NASA’s employee roster by more than 20% to some 14,000, NASA spokesperson Cheryl Warner told NPR in June.

Still, even amid all of those issues, the agency was able to dodge the biggest potential bullet of them all — a proposed 24% reduction in its budget issued by the White House, which would have been the biggest cut in agency history.

That threat all but evaporated when Congress agreed on a $24.4 billion NASA spending bill in January, representing a mere 1.7% budget reduction.

The NASA administrator’s job itself remained unfilled throughout 2025, as President Donald Trump withdrew his nomination of Isaacman. Trump ultimately changed course, and Isaacman was confirmed by the Senate on Dec. 17.

Major changes for the Artemis program

Of all the difficulties faced by NASA, the technical problems and cost overruns of the Artemis program itself have emerged as perhaps the most high-profile.

The Feb. 25 postponement was the second recent delay for Artemis II, which is to send four astronauts on a “slingshot” fly-by around the moon. Last month, NASA pushed back the launch to March after engineers discovered what they called a significant hydrogen leak during a wet dress rehearsal.

NASA said Thursday it plans to roll the Artemis II Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule back out to the launchpad next week, aiming for a launch in April.

The rollout wis to begin March 19, with an eye at launching as early as the evening of April 1, NASA officials said during a press briefing.

The original target date for landing astronauts on the moon — 55 years after the United States first did it — was 2024. When that was announced in 2019, many observers thought the target date was too optimistic.

The effort’s total cost after NASA recently added nine new elements now exceeds $20 billion, the Government Accountability Office reported last summer. Three of those elements have racked up a total of $7 billion in cost overruns.

NASA has made efforts to get a handle on the overruns through its Moon to Mars Program Office, the GAO said, but warned that each new delay to mission dates can create a cascading effect of increased costs across multiple programs that function independently of each other.

Clear warnings

And in its report from last month, the NASA safety panel sounded clear warnings about the “ambitious timeline” for developing the Human Landing System, given its “intricate operational design” and :complex concept of operations,” as well as other serious safety concerns surrounding the Artemis program.

Taken together, the issues posed a “high safety risk,” the panel concluded, which “casts doubt on the current Artemis III timeline and the feasibility of the Artemis III mission goals.”

In the wake of the latest issues, Isaacman announced a major revamp of Artemis under which the expected moon landing was pushed back from Artemis III in 2027 to Artemis IV in 2028.

“We have to rebuild core competencies,” he told reporters Feb. 27, blaming the repeated delays on too-infrequent launch schedules (known as the “launch cadence”), which he said causes “muscle memory” to “atrophy.”

“This is just not the right pathway forward,” he asserted, while revealing that a moon landing with Artemis III in 2027 has been deemed too ambitious and will instead now be attempted with Artemis IV in 2028.

Artemis III will instead now serve as a mission to perform tests on connecting with lunar landers in low-Earth orbit, as well as to test equipment that will go on Artemis IV.

Meanwhile, to bump up the launch cadence to once every 10 months rather than every three years, Isaacman announced a standardization of the SLS rocket fleet to “essentially near ‘Block-1’ configuration.”

The idea, he said, is to reduce the complexity of the massive rocket and to “accelerate manufacturing, pull in the hardware and increase launch rate, which obviously has a direct safety consideration to it, as well. You get into a good rhythm launching with greater frequency, you get that muscle memory.”

To do that, he added, “we need to rebuild and strengthen the workforce here at NASA. … We have to rebuild core competencies. The ability to turn around our launch pads and launch with frequency greater than every three years is imperative,” he said, pointing to the histories of the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle programs, when “the average launch cadence was closer to three months.”

The decision to simplify and standardize the SLS starting with Artemis IV also means the agency will no longer need to use the $1.5 billion Mobile Launcher 2 at Kennedy Space Center, which is still under construction and has faced its own cost overruns and delays.

Experts’ reactions

Experts who have been closely following the development of Artemis expressed a range of opinions about whether the latest moves are the right ones for the moon program and the U.S. space program generally.

Kenny Evans, a fellow in science, technology and innovation policy at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy in Houston, told UPI the glitches and the resulting negative perceptions of the program are indeed tied to the drawn-out launch cadence.

“The extended periods between SLS launches have given NASA fewer chances to test out hardware — and less cover for when things go wrong,” he said. “That has long been a valid criticism of the SLS program and a source of bad press — for example, the fueling issues in prior wet dress rehearsals.

“Working out kinks, as visible and expensive as they are, should be seen as net positives rather than programmatic failures,” he said.

“Frankly I’m relieved to see the timeline revamp,” Evans added. “The Artemis schedule Isaacman inherited had absolutely no chance of meeting its prior targets, and I’ve been impressed by his willingness to address the hard truths about the program.

“In terms of safety, making Artemis III a system test will provide NASA a much needed opportunity to remove as much risk as possible before attempting a lunar landing for Artemis IV,” he said while noting he is “particularly enthusiastic” about the NASA leader’s stated commitment to strengthening its workforce, “especially in light of cuts to agency staff.”

Meanwhile, the National Space Society’s Dicht, said his interactions with students, engineers, long-time space advocates and the public have shown him there is “real enthusiasm for progress in the space program,” but that new momentum is needed.

“I believe NASA Administrator Isaacman’s proposals to improve launch cadence, strengthen the workforce and standardize the SLS are positive steps that can help stabilize the Artemis program and move it toward a sustained return to the moon,” Dicht said.

“Whether it is SLS or any other rocket, these are extraordinarily complex machines,” he said. “Increasing the cadence of launches and ensuring the workforce is well-trained and consistently engaged helps build the operational experience, or ‘muscle memory,’ that improves reliability and the likelihood of mission success.”

While there is steady and palpable excitement over humankind’s first return to the moon since 1972 among committed enthusiasts, “there remains a segment of the public, including some social media influencers, who interpret technical issues as a sign that the program is failing,” he said.

“When missions occur every few years it is easy for people to lose interest,” Dicht said. “If the program can move toward a more regular rhythm, possibly two flights per year, it will attract attention and reinforce the sense that progress is being made.”

Similar to Apollo 9

Spaceflight historian and science author Amy Shira Teitel, creator of The Vintage Space YouTube channel, said the revamp “doesn’t particularly surprise me,” noting the decision to change Artemis III’s moon landing mission into a test flight is reminiscent of Apollo 9 in March 1969.

In that mission, a three-astronaut crew carried out vital tests while in low-Earth orbit to prepare for the historic Apollo 11 moon landing four months later.

“The plan to land Artemis III while still not having the lander ready or even chosen, from what I could tell, seemed like trouble waiting to happen, so the idea of going back to Apollo 9 and testing the hardware/mission in Earth orbit seems both safe and like it should have been the first step before going to the moon,” she told UPI in emailed comments.

The author of Breaking the Chains of Gravity: The Story of Spaceflight before NASA has questioned the overall purpose, cost and broader implications of the moon-to-Mars effort, contending it lacks a compelling justification other than “going for the sake of going” while the highly successful and popular International Space Station is scheduled to be scrapped in 2030.

All of the Artemis changes, Teitel said, are “emphasizing how hard it is, and how insane it is to be looking at canceling the ISS without a replacement and just focusing on the moon-to-Mars pipeline without any kind of long-term infrastructure or planning.

“And the endless issues with SLS — why are we adding more launches?” she asked. “We know this system is flawed. It feels like retrofitting a mission into the hardware to justify the … launch cost.”