Moon

Artemis I is an uncrewed test flight that will launch the agency's Space Launch System and send its Orion spacecraft around the Moon and back to Earth.

NASA's Artemis program is aiming to send astronauts back to the lunar surface as early as 2025. Astronauts last walked on the moon in 1972.

NASA's Artemis 1 mission to send a rocket to orbit the moon was delayed at the Kennedy Space Center on Monday due to a hydrogen fuel leak.

A small NASA satellite on Monday broke free from its orbit around Earth and is headed toward the moon. The satellite is roughly the size of a microwave oven.

The Sustaining Lunar Development contract will offer an alternative to SpaceX's Starship, which is aiming to transport the first woman and first person of color to the Moon in 2025 or 2026 as part of NASA's Artemis III mission.

The inspector general's office predicts 2026 will likely be the Artemis program's earliest timeframe for humans' first return to the Moon in more than 50 years, citing a series of factors that have caused delays from its 2024 target.

The awards include $9.4 million for SpaceX, $25.6 million for Blue Origin, $34.8 million for Northrop Grumman, $35.2 million for Lockheed Martin, and $40.8 million for Dynetics.

Jeff Bezos has sent an open letter to NASA administrator Bill Nelson offering to help the agency cover over $2 billion in costs in exchange for awarding a second Human Landing System (HLS) contract to Blue Origin.

Sixty years to the day that NASA astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American in space aboard the Freedom 7 rocket, U.S. business leaders are continuing to help the country make major strides in space exploration.