Hi there, and welcome again to TechCrunch Area! To the shock of nobody, ever, NASA introduced that the following Artemis mission is delayed to no sooner than April 2026, and the next Artemis III mission is delayed to mid-2027. Will probably be fascinating to see how Artemis modifications below Jared Isaacman’s management — extra on that under…
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I’ll admit that I used to be a bit stunned this week once I realized that incoming President Donald Trump is nominating entrepreneur and personal astronaut Jared Isaacman to the position of NASA Administrator. The NASA Administrator oversees a $25 billion funds and a workforce of greater than 18,000 individuals — in addition to guiding main scientific initiatives that assist us perceive local weather change, the photo voltaic system, and a lot extra.
I took a stab at making an attempt to grasp how Isaacman — who isn’t a political determine, and has by no means held public workplace — would lead the area company by way of what might find yourself being one of the vital consequential intervals in NASA historical past.
Many individuals have puzzled what precisely is occurring with SpinLaunch, a startup that’s growing another system for delivering satellites and different payloads to orbit. I wasn’t in a position to unravel it, however I did study one thing fascinating: Whereas SpinLaunch lately closed $11 million in new funding (after elevating a $71 million Collection B in 2022), they had been mulling a a lot, a lot increased sum earlier this 12 months.
It’s becoming that we’ve talked a lot about the way forward for the Artemis program this week, as a result of for this week’s “This week in space history” phase, we’re trying again at Apollo 17 — aka the final time people walked on the moon. The mission, which befell from December 7-19, 1972, was the final crewed lunar touchdown below NASA’s Apollo program. Click on the hyperlink above to study extra concerning the mission.
