It has been a busy few weeks, and I wanted to provide some updates. To begin, I want to once again acknowledge the incredible contributions of the NASA workforce, along with our commercial and international partners, in sending the Artemis II crew safely on a historic mission around the Moon. You have captivated the world again, and now the show goes on as we prepare to return to the surface, build a base, and get ready for where we will inevitably go next.
While this is a long letter discussing organizational changes, the objectives remain unchanged.
Artemis Program – Standardize the SLS architecture to the greatest extent possible, rebuild muscle memory, launch with frequency and return NASA astronauts to the surface of the Moon. The Artemis program will live on past any one launch vehicle, and at some point in the future, transition to commercial pathways with crewed missions as often as every six months to ensure we never give up the Moon again.
Moon Base – Return to the Moon to stay, build an enduring presence through a phased iterative approach to learn until we have an outpost that delivers novel science, stimulates a lunar economy and becomes the proving ground for the technology necessary to undertake future crewed missions to Mars.
Space Reactor Office – pioneer the next ‘giant leap’ technology, get America underway on nuclear power in space with SR-1 freedom, lay the …