Americano: what can Artemis II tell us about the wonders of the moon?

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4.3 • 826 Ratings

🗓️ 7 April 2026

⏱️ 28 minutes

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Summary

Artemis II departed on the most ambitious mission yet, something which has not been tried for 50 years. Four astronauts were launched into the air on a ten day expedition with the aim of travelling 5000 miles past the far side of the moon. Natasha Feroze is joined by David Whitehouse, astroscientist and writer to discuss the difficulty involved in the mission, how little we think about the significance of the moon and whether the US will beat China in its quest to have footsteps back on the moon.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The British right is up for grabs. As May's local elections approach, the Conservatives face strong competition from Reform UK.
0:07.9	Join the Spectator's assistant editor, Isabel Hardman, for the spectator debate, the fight for the right, on Wednesday, the 29th of April in London.
0:15.5	We will pit the Conservatives represented by Matthew Saeed and Dominic Johnson against Reform UK, represented by
0:21.5	Matt Goodwin and Danny Kruger. To see which party truly represents the future of the right,
0:27.2	book your tickets at spectator.com forward slash fight.
0:41.0	Hello and welcome back to the Americano show.
0:42.2	My name is Freddie Gray.
0:45.9	I am the deputy editor of the spectator and the US editor.
0:51.4	And I'm pleased to tell you that this is the 10th year of the Americano podcast.
0:57.3	And I think it's fair to say it's been a fairly fascinating time in American politics, life and culture. And that's what we talk about every episode on this podcast. So please
1:04.6	keep listening and provide as much feedback as you like. Well, hello and welcome to the Americano podcast, and I can only
1:14.7	apologise because Freddie Gray is not with us, and so you're stuck with me. I'm Natasha
1:21.3	Faro's. I have been producing the Americano podcast for the last three years, and today I'm delighted to be joined by the astro-scientist
1:31.0	and writer David Whitehouse, where we're going to be talking about the launch of Artemis II,
1:37.4	which has so far seemed extremely successful. David, what an exciting day it has been. Could you tell us a little bit about the vessel,
1:48.7	the rocket itself of Artemis II? Well, it's called the space launch system, and it's designed to
1:55.5	launch the Orion capsule holding the four astronauts for this mission called integrity on their way to the moon.
2:03.4	And the space launch system is the most powerful rocket that humans have ever rode into space.
2:09.4	It's much more powerful than the Saturn 5 that took the Apollo astronauts to the moon.
2:14.9	And it's a bit of a, it's symbolic of the problem that America's got with getting
2:22.4	people back to the moon because it's a bit of a hodgepodge. It's a bit of a combination of various
2:28.3	directions in the sense that the basic parts of it are refurbished space shuttle components.
	...

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