Watch live! NASA to deliver Artemis moon campaign update ahead of change in leadership – YouTube Watch On
NASA is about to speak out about its plan to return astronauts to the moon, and you’ll be able to watch it live on Thursday (Dec. 5).
Top space agency officials will hold a press conference Thursday to give a public update on the state of NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to launch Artemis 2 astronauts around the moon next year and land an Artemis 3 crew near the lunar south pole in 2026. The briefing will begin at 1 p.m. EST (1800 GMT) and stream live on the NASA+ streaming service and in the window above.
The Artemis update comes at a time of transition for the U.S. government, as well as NASA, after President-elect Donald Trump won the 2024 election last month. On Wednesday (Dec. 5), Trump picked American billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman as his choice for NASA’s next chief. Isaacman is a pilot and private astronaut who launched to orbit twice with SpaceX on missions he financed himself. Isaacman most recently flew on September’s Polaris Dawn mission, in which he performed the world’s first private spacewalk, and has booked two more SpaceX flights under his Polaris program.
NASA SLS rocket kit! (Image credit: Amazon) You can launch a Space Launch System of your own with this Estes NASA SLS model rocket for a 1:200 scale version of NASA’s moon megarocket. Read more about it.
Thursday’s Artemis program update is not expected to touch on Trump’s selection of Isaacman as his next NASA administrator. Rather, the briefing will likely provide an update on NASA’s first crewed Artemis mission, Artemis 2, which is currently scheduled to launch four astronauts around the moon in September 2025. The mission, which was originally targeted for a November 2024 launch, has been repeatedly delayed since an uncrewed Artemis 1 test flight around the moon in 2022 as NASA studies heat shield issues with the Orion spacecraft.
NASA’s current leader, Administrator Bill Nelson (a former Florida Senator who once flew on a space shuttle mission), will lead Thursday’s Artemis program update. Joining him will be NASA Deputy Adminstrator Pam Melroy, an astronaut and space shuttle commander, as well as Artemis 2 mission commander and astronaut Reid Wisman.
Two other NASA officials — Catherine Koerner, associate administrator for exploration systems, and Amit Kshatriya, deputy associate administrator of the agency’s Moon to Mars program office — will also speak during the briefing.
NASA’s uncrewed Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft takes a ‘selfie’ near the moon on Nov. 21, 2022. (Image credit: NASA)
NASA will update us all on its Artemis moon landing program on Dec. 5. Here’s how to watch live.
