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Short Wave

Artemis: NASA's New Chapter In Space

Short Wave

NPR

Daily News, Nature, Life Sciences, Astronomy, Science, News

4.76K Ratings

🗓️ 25 August 2022

⏱️ 12 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Humans haven't set foot on the moon in 50 years, but NASA hopes to take one step closer with the launch of a new rocket and space capsule on Monday. Today, science correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce joins Scientist in Residence Regina G. Barber to talk about what NASA hopes to learn from this test flight and why it might be difficult to justify the program's cost.

Planning to tune in for Monday's launch? Email us at [email protected].

Transcript

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0:00.0

You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.

0:07.0

Hey, Shure Wavers, Regina Barber here, and if you were born anytime in the last half-century,

0:11.6

like me, then in your lifetime no one has walked on the moon.

0:15.9

10, 9, 8, 7, ignition sequence started, all engines are started.

0:24.0

It was just after midnight on December 7, 1972, when NASA launched Apollo 17, the last

0:30.5

mission to bring astronauts to the lunar surface.

0:41.8

Today NASA has a new moon rocket and crew capsule waiting on a launch pad in Florida.

0:47.0

Its 32 stories tall, more powerful than the famous Saturn V moon rocket, and its first

0:52.1

test flight is scheduled for Monday morning.

0:54.8

I won't be there, but Science correspondent Nell Greenfield-Boys is going to see this

0:58.8

rocket launch.

0:59.8

Hey, no.

1:00.8

Hey, Regina, I hope I see it launch.

1:02.8

I hope it goes as scheduled.

1:04.5

Me too, me too.

1:05.5

But this test flight is a huge deal for NASA, right?

1:08.2

Yeah, they've been working on this for over a decade.

1:10.9

And if all goes as planned, this rocket will send a crew capsule on a long, looping mission

1:15.5

around the moon and back to Earth.

1:18.1

But this time there's no astronauts on board.

1:20.6

No, no, this time they're just testing out the spacecraft.

1:23.7

But the goal is to use this vehicle to get people back to the moon in just a few years.

...

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