Twelve American men have gone to the moon. The last Apollo astronaut left his footprint there in December 1972. Now, half a century later, NASA is planning to send people back to the moon. The new program after Apollo’s legendary twin sister is called Artemis, and its goal is the next. A woman will make a footprint on the moon. The astronaut who receives that assignment has not yet been selected.
As you are going to see, this new pressure on the moon has been drowned out by doubts, costs and more delays. When we visited NASA we found something else interesting: the Artemis program is not just a name. For the female, it is mostly executed By women
Charlie Blackwell-Thompson: So on launch day there’s no place I want to be here.
Charlie Blackwell-Thompson is NASA’s first female launch director.
In a year or more, she will command the “launch to go” for the first Artemis lunar rocket in the historic historic Firing Room One at the Kennedy Space Center, which she visited more than 30 years ago as a graduating college graduate. .
Charlie Blackwell-Thompson: This is the same room where the Apollo 11 mission was launched. And that’s the only room we’ll start the first flight of the Artemis mission.
Bill Whitaker: When that young lady first walked here, you really said to yourself, “I have to do this one day”?
Charlie Blackwell-Thompson: I absolutely did. My thought was, “How can I get a seat in this room?”
Bill Whitaker: And now you have a “seat” in the room.
Charlie Blackwell-Thompson: I have a nice seat in this room. (Laughter)
All the Apollo lunar missions were launched on top of the giant Saturn five rockets, making it the most powerful in the world at the time. NASA’s new rocket is more muscular.
Bill Whitaker: Can you put it into words how powerful this new rocket is?
Charlie Blackwell-Thompson: The main stage will be hundreds of thousands of gallons of propellant. Eight million pounds thrust on the liftoff.
The most powerful rocket ever is called the Space System or SLS. In development over a decade, it still has to fly; And in testing, its four main engines have only been fired once.
Jodi Singer: He works hard on gravity.
Jodi Singer is the first second woman for NASA: As the first woman to run a Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, it has been her job to create the SLS, which is designed to go to the moon.
Jodi Singer: It is designed to go deep into space. And right now, it’s the only vehicle in existence that can carry Orion and take what it does to go deep into space.
Orion is the capsule that will ride on top of the astronaut SLS rocket. Ready to go first. The lunar lander is still in the “concept” phase, but NASA doesn’t really need it until the third Artemis Moon mission.
Charlie Blackwell-Thompson: Artemis I SLS with this integrated vehicle, Orion. Testing. Artemis II is about the inclusion of the crew, and prepares us for Artemis III. Where, then, we will go to the surface of the moon.
Bill Whitaker: You hear yourself, and how cool does that sound?
Charlie Blackwell-Thompson: That sounds pretty cool.
Another great part of the Artemis project is the space station Gateway, which was meant to orbit the moon.
NASA intends to use Elon Musk’s company SpaceX to launch gateway components from its Falcon heavy rocket.
The Falcon Heavy is already flying, its first launch a few years ago sending Musk’s Tesla Roadster to Mars; Yes, it really happened. Jodi Singer says SpaceX is an example of a partnership with NASA’s commercial launch providers.
Jodi Singer: We work together. And I think working together, that’s how we’ll be able to deliver the Artemis program. We both bring great things to this partnership.
It is uncertain when that partnership will actually bring women and men to the moon. Donald Trump set 2024 as the target; Which insiders saw as unrealistic. President Biden has not set a timetable, but his White House has offered to give Artemis an early thumbs up.
White House Press Secretary Jane Psaki in a briefing: … another man and a woman on the moon, which is very exciting.
Bill Whitaker: What does it say about NASA that you are in this position in a completely male-dominated field?
Jodi Singer: Nice, number one, I would say we’ve come a long way. You know, Charlie and I know we’ve known each other for at least 20 years. We liked each other. Also, we knew you, sometimes there was only one woman in the room.
No more Charlie Blackwell-Thompson says that on launch day, 30% of the engineers in his firing room will now be women.
Bill Whitaker: Have you always been interested in space, even when you were a little kid?
Charlie Blackwell-Thompson: I remember the last Apollo mission, the last couple. And I can remember the feeling of curiosity and awe. I could go out and I could look up at the sky, and it was as if our astronauts were visiting the moon.
A pool of 18 Artemis astronauts has already been selected. Nine women, nine men. Of which six are test pilots, four are Ph.D. There are three medical doctors. It is not yet known which of them will fly to the moon, but two are currently in space on the International Space Station.
Bill Whitaker: Why the Moon? Why put the cost to return to the moon? “
Charlie Blackwell-Thompson: We will still learn from the samples that came back during the Apollo program. There is a lot of science from – many scientific discoveries returning to the moon.
Scientists are particularly tantalized by recent evidence that there is a large chunk of ice near the moon’s south pole. This is exactly where Artemis is supposed to land. Ice means H2O, which means life-sustaining water and hydrogen and oxygen potentially converted into rocket fuel.
Charlie Blackwell-Thompson: I was referring to the moon – for places like Mars, a demonstration ground, a way to learn how to live in deep space when we are just days, months or years away from home.
Lori Garver: And it will be great when we go back, and if we can stay this time, we’ll be especially great.
Lori Garver was the second-largest officer at NASA during most of the Obama administration. He wants America back on the moon, but believes the current approach is the wrong way to get there.
Lori Garver: When the private sector is building almost as many rockets as it can at no cost to the taxpayer, I would recommend building a નું 27 billion rocket.
She’s talking about Elon Musk’s Falcon Heavy rocket.
Garver was an early advocate of turning everyone around Development of big new rockets in private companies like SpaceX.
Lori Garver: But Congress had a different goal. Their goal was really to increase contracts and jobs in their districts.
2010 – At that time – the space shuttle was about to collapse and members of Congress feared that aerospace jobs in their districts would also be lost.
Bill Whitaker: SLS, the space launch system, jokingly known as the Senate launch system. Can you explain to us why he got that nickname?
Lori Garver: In this case, it was the Senate that came to us at NASA and said, “No, we don’t like your plan. And we’re preparing you to make it that way.”
So Boeing, the main contractor for the space shuttle and a longtime NASA partner, became the main contractor for SLS.
Lori Garver: The industry said they would make 6 billion in six years. It was a rocket. It has been 20 billion in 11 years.
The NASA duo Singer acknowledges delays and overspending, but insists it’s the right model.
Jodi Singer: The Space Launch System, I’m proud to say, employs over 45 states and over 1,100 vendors. So the space launch system is the national vehicle. That is jobs. That means, across the country, for SLS alone, there are more than 25,000 jobs.
Lori Garver: It’s ironic, honestly, that NASA is a very symbol of democracy and capitalist society – it has socialized more of its human spaceflight programs.
Bill Whitaker: In a more socialist way. (Laughter) I think many senators in whose district these NASA jobs are being found will be able to hear the descriptions.
Lori Garver: You will plant potatoes in March. You will build my rocket in your district. That’s it – that’s it.
In a top-down approach, NASA has built the SLS rocket, which will cost more than 2 2 billion for each launch, while SpaceX flies its Falcon Heavy for its fraction, Garvar says.
NASA’s SLS can launch heavy payload launches, but it uses rockets and loses; Its parts cannot be reused. In contrast, SpaceX booster rockets make softer landings after launch, so they can be used more and more. Two of its first phases have already been launched eight times in each!
Bill Whitaker: Am I missing something to say that this is the new way, and what is going on with NASA is the old way?
Charlie Blackwell-Thompson: Well, I probably wouldn’t call it the “new way” and the “old way”. I would probably describe it just as different ways. I would say that our rocket was built based on proven technology.
Bill Whitaker: So you wouldn’t say he’s “old,” he’s “proven”?
Charlie Blackwell-Thompson: I would say it’s “proven.”
Still, the SpaceX rockets have proven enough that NASA now trusts its astronauts to take them to the International Space Station.
That successful mission should not be misunderstood by a whole new rocket called Starship that SpaceX is testing in Texas. Three test flights so far, all ending in spectacular explosions તાજે the latest one last week.
Bill Whitaker: So NASA should make it a major and rely on SpaceX and commercial launchers – for the moon and beyond?
Lori Garver: No doubt. We should be first.
Bill Whitaker: Is NASA capable of making that shift?
Lori Garver: Oh, of course. I mean, NASA is more capable than they are – they realize.
Bill Whitaker: Now, considering all that you have told me, will Congress allow NASA to make that change?
Lori Garver: Probably not.
For the moment, the main phase of the first Artemis mission sits in a test stand in Mississippi – the same stand used for the Apollo mission. After shortening the first through technical hurdles, it is awaiting test firing.
There are six American flags on the moon, each for the Apollo landing. Also new There is the Chinese, left last year by a robotic lander, who collects samples and brings them to Earth. Beijing plans to send an astronaut late.
Bill Whitaker: Aren’t we in a space race with China?
Lori Garver: There is no race to the moon. We won it. We won it six times. And I have no doubt we’ll be back with people before anyone else goes.
And from his seat in the Charlie Blackwell-Thompson firing room, there will be a woman to launch them.
Charlie Blackwell-Thompson: We talk a lot about the moon, and I think the moon is extraordinary, and I can’t wait to go back. But when we talk about the young people who can be like me when I was younger, looking at the night sky and looking at the moon, I want them to keep an eye on the night sky and not be limited to the moon.
Produced by Rome Hartmann. Associate Producer, Sara Kuzmarov. Broadcast collaborator, Emilio Almonte. Edited by Craig Crawford.
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