NASA is practicing moonwalks. When are we going back?

Short Wave

NPR

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

4.7 • 6.5K Ratings

🗓️ 29 April 2026

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

After the success of Artemis II, we at Short Wave definitely have moon fever. So, we brought NPR science correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce onto the show to talk about where we’re headed. What will future Artemis missions look like and what needs to happen next for people to be able to walk on the moon again? We find out in this latest installment of Spacing Out – with space enthusiasts Regina G Barber and one of the hosts of All Things Considered, Scott Detrow!

Interested in more space episodes? Check out our whole summer series, Space Camp. Or, email us your ideas for future space-focused episodes at shortwave@npr.org.

P.S. If you see this and you like the idea of formally calling this segment “Spacing Out with Gina”, email us to let us know that too! We’re still deciding.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:05.1	Hey, Shortwaver is Regina Barbara here.
0:06.9	And we are back with our space news segment.
0:10.4	And I think we still should call the podcast version spacing out with Gina.
0:14.9	I mean, it sounds good to me.
0:16.0	Fair is fair.
0:17.2	Today we have science correspondent Nell Greenfield Boys.
0:20.4	Hey, Nell. Hey, Gina. And we also have our regular
0:23.6	contributor, Space Geek and All Things Considered host, Scott Detrow. Welcome back to this part of
0:29.0	SpaceGot. I am so thrilled to be back here. Favorite topic to discuss at all points,
0:34.0	ready to space hat again. Yes. And Nell, our first timer, are you ready for this?
0:38.9	Absolutely. So I know I came here to talk about Artemis because we just had a successful
0:43.8	mission from NASA. So I'm going to tell you what's in store for the next Artemis missions.
0:49.7	And do you have any guesses from the two of you? Like before we get into it about where we're going to go? They're going to go to Jupiter. They'll talk about their toilets. I mean, they should talk about their toilets. Those are all fine, fine guesses. And if we go to those places, I will definitely want to cover them, but not this time. Then we're also going to get into some sort of connection between seismic activity and total solar eclipses, right?
1:12.6	Yes, a real scientific connection.
1:14.8	And to round it out, we're going to talk about an interstellar comet.
1:18.0	And for a taste of what's to come, I have a joke for you both.
1:23.2	So why does a shooting star taste better than a comet?
1:27.3	I have no idea.
1:29.0	Not so icy?
1:30.0	It's a little meteor.
1:31.3	Oh.
	...

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