I really want to know about Artemis III rendezvous objectives - will that include testing life support systems? SpaceX hasn’t even got Starship into LEO yet - will they be ready for mid-2027 with the HLS version?
I guess time will tell…
Also - do they have enough RS-25 engines for the new plan?
There were lots of unanswered questions in that press briefing. I guess it does explain why Blue Origin decided to stop flying New Shepard and concentrate on the Moon, and even Elon started talking Moon stuff recently…
But surely that begs the question ‘why did it take so long to change the plan?’. And also, why wasn’t someone looking at alternative architectures so they could be clear about the new missions when they made the announcement?
Still letting the Artemis mission architecture change news sink in. Yes - everyone agrees that attempting a crewed landing with Artemis III was ambitious/insane/improbable, and Isaacman kept repeating ‘no one has forgotten the history books at NASA’…
That’s a very good question! Though I guess their argument is they want to get used to launching a standardised vehicle - more frequently - so they can iron out wrinkles in the process.
You and me both! Isaacman seemed to flit between saying ‘rendezvous’ and suggesting full on docking and astronauts going into the lander to test life support… Starship hasn’t even managed LEO yet, so… hmm yeah
Well - certainly if you look at the Trump budget request you could look at it that way.
Yeah - absolutely! Also begs the question: since it was so obvious that lunar fly-by then jump to landing of next mission was er.. ‘ambitious’, why did it take so long to make this decision?
You think?
Will be interesting to see if Starship is ready for a rendezvous mission next year…
I’ve been saying China will land the first woman on the Moon for quite some time now, and I suspect that will happen before Artemis has a human landing.
Neither it seems - it’s going to be a rendezvous in LEO with one or both of the commercial lunar landers!
Interested to know how confident Blue Origin and SpaceX are about having their HLS landers ready for rendezvous missions *next year* and whether their life support systems are ready for crews to enter them without needing EVA suits.
“We’re talking about hiring and bringing in workforce” says Isaacman admitting they will be needed to enable a higher launch cadence.
“There’s no one who comes to work at nasa who forgot their history book, they know how we did this before” says Isaacman as he explains this mission architecture change comes as no big surprise. #Artemis
“We’re going to standardise, we’re not going to make every rocket a work of art” says Isaacman.
Totally agree
Interesting, despite hoping to launch Artemis III mid-2027, they’re not ready to talk about when they might name a crew for the mission. #Artemis
Artemis III will launch, ideally, in mid-2027 says Isaacman. They want to rendezvous with one or both landers, and also test out the commercial space suits. If timeline doesn’t allow for that, they want to test suits on the ISS.
Question from Fox News about whether this means the goal of getting humans on the Moon will slip again (was originally meant to be in 2024) and what the administration thinks about that. “Trump loves space” says Isaacman… “I know he’s fully supportive”
“75% of our workforce right now is contractors. I think a lot of them should be civil servants” says Isaacman.
It should be incredibly obvious that you don’t go from one crewed launch, wait three years, then launch a landing mission says Jared Isaacman.
Isaacman says he’s not disappointed by this change to Artemis, but excited, as he thinks it’s a way that they can reach the goals to get Americans on the Moon within the time frame. #Artemis
Target for Artemis IV is early 2028.
Interesting - Ken Kramer is asking about Gateway. Isaacman isn’t really answering the question, but says the focus for this press conference is standardisation and higher launch cadence for getting American back on the Moon.
Artemis III now looking to rendezvous with one or both of the commercial Human Landing Systems (from SpaceX or Blue Origin). Isaacman says docking in LEO will reduce some of the risks for rendezvous in lunar orbit. #Artemis
NASA press conference with BIG updates on the Artemis programme. Artemis III will no longer be a lunar landing mission, and Jared Isaacman wants to increase NASA’s launch cadence to yearly - or ideally every 10 months. He’s underlined the importance of rebuilding the work force. #Artemis
Three US astronauts, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut, Jeremy Hanse, are due to take off in the mega Moon rocket, which will allow them several hours to study the moon's surface up close.
Pedant in me is cross they don’t capitalise ‘Moon’, but come on BBC - sending humans around the Moon is a big deal, so at least spell their names right. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... 😬
Aaaand now there’s talk of potential roll-back of SLS…. 😬
Ah. Looks like I spoke too soon when I said NASA was targeting March 6th for launch, though I did so knowing full well it was a ‘target’ rather than confirmed launch date…
Ooh NASA targeting March 6th for Artemis II - still a target, and not definitely confirmed, but still feels like progress…
