Symposium Sessions
Building a Map to the Moon

Over the next decade, dozens of robotic landings and a handful of crewed landings are anticipated to build an enduring presence on the lunar surface. Beyond the race for international prestige upon a successful landing, there are multiple benefits for returning to the Moon: national security, potential resource utilization, a gateway for missions deeper into…
The Next Great Economy: The Moon

The surface of the Moon will be far less barren in the coming years. At two featured discussions at the 41st Space Symposium on Thursday, NASA officials, commercial partners and scientists explained the rapidly growing opportunities on the lunar surface. With an ambitious launch schedule described during NASA’s Ignition Day, more commercial partners will be heading to the Moon than ever before.
Commercial Space Stations Underscore the New Route to Orbit

Four new space stations are in a race to orbit. Commercial space station executives told an audience at the 41st Space Symposium on Wednesday that their companies are eager to scale up on the capabilities that the International Space Station has proven for more than 25 years. As the ISS faces a planned retirement and deorbiting in the early 2030s, four planned commercial…
Isaacman on the Future of Artemis: ‘This Time, We Stay’

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman Tuesday morning laid out an optimistic, high-paced vision for the future of the Artemis Program at the 41st Space Symposium. Fresh off the success of the Artemis II splashdown, Isaacman explained the scientific and national security necessities for establishing a lunar base. “American leadership in the high ground of space is not optional,” he said. “I don’t see how…
How the Artemis II Mission Lifted 6 Million Pounds Into Space

When a launch vehicle the size of Artemis II takes off, the roar shakes everything around it for miles. The brightness of the flames burns like the sun. This fusion of spectacle and science is sending humans toward the Moon for the first time in more than half a century. In just a few days,…
Artemis II Successfully Launches 4 Astronauts Toward the Moon

For the first time in more than 50 years, humans are leaving Earth’s orbit. NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) took off from Kennedy Space Center at 6:35:12 p.m. Eastern Daylight Saving Time on a mission that will set the stage for U.S. lunar habitation by 2028. As the 322-foot-tall launch vehicle thundered into the sky,…
