(CNN) — Calls for the United States to return astronauts to the moon before the end of the decade have been increasingly loud and frequent, emanating from bipartisan lawmakers and science advocates alike. But underlying that drumbeat is a quagmire of ...

Isaacman: 'We can never accept a gap in our capabilities again' The US must return astronauts to the Moon before China mounts its first crewed landing there, NASA administrator nominee Jared Isaacman predicted on Wednesday.

There appeared to be no showstoppers during the hearing, in which Isaacman reiterated his commitment to the space agency’s Artemis Program and defended his draft plan for NASA, “Project Athena,” which calls for an assessment of how NASA should adapt to meet the modern space age.

Acting NASA chief Sean Duffy surprised many people earlier this week when he said the space agency was intending to reopen the contracts for the Artemis III lunar lander that will return astronauts to the moon for the first time in five decades. The target ...

The new space station crew includes American Chris Williams, who holds a Ph.D. in astronomy and is a board-certified medical physicist at Harvard Medical School.

As part of this move, Duffy asked NASA’s current lunar lander contractors, SpaceX and Blue Origin, for more nimble plans. Neither has specified those plans publicly, but a recent update from SpaceX referenced a “simplified” version of the Starship system it’s building to help NASA return humans to the Moon.

STORY: NASA will send four astronauts on a ten-day voyage around the moon in 2026 - the latest step in a mission to land humans on the lunar surface for the first time in more than five decades. :: November 16, 2022 But the current Artemis program has ...