Hiya, 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. It will likely be fascinating to see how Artemis adjustments below Jared Isaacman’s management — extra on that beneath…
Need to attain out with a tip? E-mail Aria at aria.techcrunch@gmail.com or ship a message on Sign at 512-937-3988. You can too ship a word to the TechCrunch crew at ideas@techcrunch.com. For safer communications, click on right here to contact us, which incorporates SecureDrop directions and hyperlinks to encrypted messaging apps.
I’ll admit that I used to be a bit shocked this week once I discovered 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 price range 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 attempting to know how Isaacman — who shouldn’t be a political determine, and has by no means held public workplace — would lead the area company via what might find yourself being one of the consequential intervals in NASA historical past.
Many individuals have puzzled what precisely is happening with SpinLaunch, a startup that’s growing an alternate system for delivering satellites and different payloads to orbit. I wasn’t capable of unravel it, however I did study one thing fascinating: Whereas SpinLaunch not too long ago closed $11 million in new funding (after elevating a $71 million Collection B in 2022), they had been mulling a a lot, a lot larger 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” section, we’re trying again at Apollo 17 — aka the final time people walked on the moon. The mission, which occurred from December 7-19, 1972, was the final crewed lunar touchdown below NASA’s Apollo program. Click on the hyperlink above to study extra in regards to the mission.
