NASA names 4 astronauts for next Artemis mission
NASA's Artemis III astronauts plan to carry out rendezvous and docking procedures with commercial moon landers being built by SpaceX and Blue Origin.
Watch CBS News
Bill Harwood has been covering the U.S. space program full-time since 1984, first as Cape Canaveral bureau chief for United Press International and now as a consultant for CBS News. He covered 129 space shuttle missions, every interplanetary flight since Voyager 2's flyby of Neptune and scores of commercial and military launches. Based at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Harwood is a devoted amateur astronomer and co-author of "Comm Check: The Final Flight of Shuttle Columbia."
NASA's Artemis III astronauts plan to carry out rendezvous and docking procedures with commercial moon landers being built by SpaceX and Blue Origin.
Out of an abundance of caution, NASA briefly directed five of the seven crew members aboard the International Space Station to wait inside the docked SpaceX Crew Dragon "Freedom" spacecraft.
NASA officials said the $582 million MAVEN orbiter could not be recovered after a problem on the far side of Mars late last year, and that its extraordinarily successful mission was at an end.
Damage to Blue Origin's lone launch pad in the wake of last week's spectacular explosion was not as severe as initially feared, the company said.
Blue Origin assess the impact of Thursday's New Glenn explosion, prompting concern about NASA moon program delays.
Blue Origin, which is owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, was gearing up for a June launch to put a batch of Amazon "Leo" internet satellites into orbit.
Perfecting SpaceX's mammoth rocket will be critical to NASA's plans for returning astronauts to the surface of the moon.
The new rocket features a host of upgrades intended to improve safety and performance of the world's most powerful rocket.
The International Space Station-bound SpaceX Cargo Dragon is loaded with 6,500 pounds of needed equipment, research gear and crew supplies.
SpaceX's most powerful operational rocket boosted a high-speed ViaSat internet data relay satellite into space to complete a globe-spanning constellation.
The launching appeared to go off without a hitch, but a problem prevented the rocket's upper stage from putting its payload into the correct orbit.
The four Artemis II astronauts struggled to describe the view and overall experience of flying around the moon's far side and witnessing a solar eclipse in deep space.
The Artemis II astronauts flew back to the Johnson Space Center in Houston Saturday to cheers and applause from family members and hundreds of NASA workers.
NASA's Artemis II astronauts returned to Earth with a splashdown landing in the Pacific Ocean after making a high-speed reentry through the atmosphere.
Despite problems during the unpiloted Artemis I reentry, the Artemis II crew is confident their heat shield will protect them during a fiery descent to Earth.