hello. Welcome back to TechCrunch Space! Surprisingly, NASA announced that the next Artemis mission will be delayed until April 2026 and the follow-up Artemis III mission will be delayed until mid-2027. It will be interesting to see how Artemis changes under Jared Isaacman’s leadership. More details on this below…
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I’ll admit I was a little surprised to learn this week that President-elect Donald Trump had nominated entrepreneur and private astronaut Jared Isaacman to lead NASA. NASA administrators not only oversee a $25 billion budget and a workforce of more than 18,000 people, but they also guide major science initiatives that help understand climate change, the solar system, and more.
I tried to understand how Isaac Mann, who was neither a politician nor had ever held public office, was able to lead the space agency through what could be one of the most important periods in NASA’s history.
Many people have wondered what exactly is going on at SpinLaunch, a startup developing alternative systems for delivering satellites and other payloads to orbit. Although we couldn’t determine the root cause, we learned something interesting. SpinLaunch recently closed $11 million in new funding (after raising a $71 million Series B in 2022), but was considering a much higher amount. Early this year.
It’s fitting that there’s been a lot of talk this week about the future of the Artemis program. Because in this week’s “Space History This Week” segment, we’re looking back at Apollo 17 (aka). The last time humans went to the moon. This mission, which took place from December 7 to 19, 1972, was the last manned lunar landing under NASA’s Apollo program. Click the link above to see more details about the mission.
