Twelve American men have walked on the moon. The last astronaut, Apollo, left his mark in December 1972. Now, half a century later, NASA plans to return people to the moon. The new program is called Artemis, after the legendary twin sister of Apollo, and the goal is that the next the footprint on the moon will be made by a woman. The astronaut who receives this task has not yet been chosen.
As you are about to see, this new push towards the Moon has been affected by doubts, extra costs and delays. But we found something else interesting when we visited NASA: the Artemis program is not just called for a woman, it is largely running for women
Charlie Blackwell-Thompson: So there’s no place on release day that I’d like to be, but right here.
Charlie Blackwell-Thompson is NASA’s first female launch director.
In a year or so, he will give the order “launch” for the first Artemis moon rocket to the historic Firing Room One of the Kennedy Space Center, which he visited for the first time more than 30 years ago as a university graduate interviewing for a job.
Charlie Blackwell-Thompson: is the same room from which the Apollo 11 mission was launched. And it is the same room that we will launch the first flight of the Artemis missions.
Bill Whitaker: When that young woman came in here for the first time, did you really say, “I want to do this someday”?
Charlie Blackwell-Thompson: I absolutely did. My thought was, “How do I get a seat in this room?
Bill Whitaker: And now you have “the” seat in the room.
Charlie Blackwell-Thompson: I have a pretty nice seat in this room. (RIVER)
All of Apollo’s lunar missions were launched on huge Saturn rockets, then the most powerful in the world. The new NASA rocket is even more muscular.
Bill Whitaker: Can you say in words how powerful this new rocket is?
Charlie Blackwell-Thompson: The center stage will have hundreds of thousands of gallons of propellant. More than eight million pounds of momentum to take off.
The most powerful rocket in history is called the Space Launch System (SLS). Developing for a decade, it has not yet flown; and has only launched its four main engines once, in one test.
Jody Singer: It’s hard work to fool gravity.
Jody Singer is another woman for the first time at NASA: as the first woman to run the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, it has been her job to build the SLS, designed to go to the moon and beyond.
Jody Singer: It’s built to go deep into space. And right now, it’s the only vehicle that exists that can transport the Orion and grab what it does to be able to go into deep space.
The Orion is the capsule that the astronauts will mount on the SLS rocket. The first one is ready. The lunar lander is still in the “concept” phase, but NASA doesn’t really need it until the third Artemis lunar mission.
Charlie Blackwell-Thompson: Artemis I is trying to test this integrated vehicle, SLS with Orion. Artemis II deals with the incorporation of the crew and prepares us for Artemis III. Where, then, we will go to the surface of the moon.
Bill Whitaker: Do you feel for yourself, and how good does it sound?
Charlie Blackwell-Thompson: Sounds pretty good.
Another interesting piece of the Artemis plan is a space station called Gateway, intended to orbit the moon.
NASA intends to use Elon Musk’s SpaceX company to launch Gateway components on one of its Falcon Heavy rockets.
The Falcon Heavy is already flying, its first launch sent Musk’s Tesla Roadster to Mars a couple of years ago; Yes, that really happened. Jody Singer says SpaceX is an illustration of NASA’s collaboration with commercial launch providers.
Jody Singer: We work together. And I think that by working together, this is how we will be able to fulfill the Artemis program. We both contribute great things to this partnership.
When it is true that this partnership will deliver women and men to the Moon is uncertain. Donald Trump set 2024 as his goal; this was seen by experts as unrealistic. President Biden has not set a timetable, but his White House has given the idea of Artemis a first.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki at the briefing: … another man and a woman on the moon, which is very exciting.
Bill Whitaker: What do you say about NASA being in these positions in what used to be a totally male-dominated sphere?
Jody Singer: Well, number one, I’d say we’ve come a long way. You know, Charlie and I have known each other for at least 20 years. We liked it. But also, sometimes, we were the only women in the room.
Not anymore. Charlie Blackwell-Thompson says that on launch day, 30% of the engineers on what is now his dispatch team will be women.
Bill Whitaker: Have you always been interested in space, even when you were little, even?
Charlie Blackwell-Thompson: I remember the last Apollo missions, the last couple. And I can remember the feeling of curiosity and fear. I could go outside and look up at the sky and our astronauts would visit the moon.
The pool of 18 Artemis astronauts has already been chosen. Nine women, nine men. Six of them are test pilots, four have a doctorate, three are doctors. It is not yet known which of them will fly to the moon, but two are in space right now on the International Space Station.
Bill Whitaker: Why the moon? Why pay the expense to return to the moon? “
Charlie Blackwell-Thompson: We are still learning from the samples that were returned during the Apollo program. There is so much science: so much scientific discovery that can arise from returning to the moon.
Scientists are especially fascinated by recent evidence that there is a lot of ice near the moon’s south pole. This is exactly where Artemis is destined to land. Ice means H2O, which means water to sustain life, and hydrogen and oxygen that potentially become rocket fuel.
Charlie Blackwell-Thompson: I would point out that the moon would be a test point, a reference point for learning to live in deep space when we are only a few days away from home, compared to months or years, for destinations like Mars.
Lori Garver: And it will go very well when we go back and, above all, it will be fantastic if, this time, we can stay.
Lori Garver was NASA’s number two official for much of the Obama administration. He wants America to return to the moon, but he believes the current approach is the wrong way to get there.
Lori Garver: I wouldn’t have recommended to the government that it build a $ 27 billion rocket, when the private sector built rockets almost as big at no cost to taxpayers.
He talks about rockets like Falcon Heavy, by Elon Musk.
Garver was one of the first advocates to turn it all around the development of large new rockets for private companies such as SpaceX.
Lori Garver: But Congress had a different goal. His goal was to really expand contracts and jobs in his districts.
At the time (2010), the space shuttle was about to land and members of Congress feared that aerospace work in their districts would also disappear.
Bill Whitaker: The SLS, the space launch system, is mockingly referred to as the launch system in the Senate. Can you tell us why you have this nickname?
Lori Garver: In this case, it was the Senate that came to us at NASA and said, “No, we don’t like our plan. And we’ll make it build that way.”
Thus, Boeing, NASA’s first space shuttle contractor and long-time partner, became the first SLS contractor.
Lori Garver: The industry said they would do it for $ 6 billion in six years. That was the rocket. They have spent $ 20 billion in 11 years.
NASA’s Jody Singer acknowledges the delays and costs outweighed, but insists it’s the right model.
Jody Singer: The space launch system, I’m proud to say, has a job of over 45 states and over 1,100 vendors. So the space launch system is a national vehicle. That means jobs. This means that across the country, for SLS alone, there are more than 25,000 people in employment.
Lori Garver: It’s ironic, honestly, that NASA, the very symbol of a democratic, capitalist society, has done many of its human spaceflight programs in a more socialist way.
Bill Whitaker: More of a socialist way. (RIU) I think a lot of the senators whose districts are getting these jobs from NASA would care about that description.
Lori Garver: You will plant the potatoes in March. You will build your rocket in my district. That is what it is.
The top-down approach, Garver says, has produced a NASA SLS rocket that will cost more than $ 2 billion for each launch, while SpaceX blows up its Falcon Heavy for a fraction of it.
NASA’s SLS may launch a heavier payload, but it’s a used-and-lost rocket; none of its parts can be reused. In contrast, spacex booster rockets make soft landings after launch, so they can be used over and over again. Two of its first stages have already been launched eight times each.
Bill Whitaker: Am I missing something in saying this is the new way, and what’s going on with NASA is the old?
Charlie Blackwell-Thompson: Well, I probably wouldn’t characterize it as “the new way” and “the old way.” I would probably characterize it as different ways. I would say our rocket was designed based on proven technology.
Bill Whitaker: So you wouldn’t say he’s “old,” he’s “proven”?
Charlie Blackwell-Thompson: I’d say it’s “proven.”
Still, SpaceX rockets are proven enough that NASA now relies on them to take their astronauts to the International Space Station.
These successful missions should not be confused with a completely new rocket called the spacecraft that SpaceX is testing in Texas. Three test flights so far, all three ending in spectacular explosions … the last one last week.
Bill Whitaker: So should NASA pivot and start relying on SpaceX and commercial launchers, for the moon and beyond?
Lori Garver: Definitely. We should have done it before.
Bill Whitaker: Is NASA able to make that change?
Lori Garver: Oh, of course. I mean NASA is capable of more than they … realize.
Bill Whitaker: Now, given everything you’ve told me, will Congress allow NASA to make that change?
Lori Garver: Probably not.
At the moment, the central stage of the first artemis mission is in a test bench in Mississippi, the same place used for the Apollo missions. He is waiting to take a test, after the technical errors have shortened the first one.
There are six American flags on the Moon, one for each Apollo landing. But the newest the flag is Chinese there, left last year by a robot robot who collected samples and returned them to earth. Beijing finally plans to send astronauts.
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 that we will be back with people before anyone leaves.
And Charlie Blackwell-Thompson will be the woman who will throw them from their seat in the shooting room.
Charlie Blackwell-Thompson: We talk a lot about the moon, and I think the moon is phenomenal and I can’t wait to go back. But when we talk about these young people who may be like me when I was younger, looking at the night sky and looking at the moon, I want them to look at the night sky and not be limited to the moon.
Produced by Rome Hartman. Associate producer, Sara Kuzmarov. Partner of the broadcast, Emilio Almonte. Edited by Craig Crawford.