Tag: nasa

NASA’s Artemis Program Is a Monument to Government Waste. It Can Only Go Up From Here.

If the pending Artemis II mission is successful, it will not just send Americans around the moon and back for the first time in more than half a century—it will send them further than any human being has traveled into space. If the rest of the Artemis program proceeds on schedule, astronauts will return to the lunar surface by the end of the decade.

That’s been a long time coming. The government has been working to get Americans back on the moon since the Bush administration created the Constellation program in the mid-2000s. Wondering why it’s taking so long, given that the original moon mission required only seven years? The answer involves the familiar forces of government inefficiency and pork barrel congressional politics.

How We Got Here

After the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated while reentering the atmosphere in 2003, the Bush administration decided to shift the space program away from the Space Shuttle program. The result was the more targeted, purpose-driven Constellation program, which focused on completing the International Space Station and laying the groundwork for a “return to the Moon no later than 2020.” This, officials hoped, would be a stepping stone toward a crewed mission to Mars not long afterward.

By the time President Barack Obama took office, the Constellation program was already on the way to cancellation; the new administration declared the program “over budget, behind schedule, and lacking in innovation.” When the Shuttle program retired in 2011, no vehicle was set to take its place. So in 2010, Congress mandated that several legacy aerospace companies create the Space Launch System (SLS), both to take over the missions that the shuttle had been servicing and to provide for future space missions.

As development began on the rocket, the projected budget cost through 2017 was $18 billion, a number that would soon start growing. Early in development, each launch was projected to cost $500 million, a number very optimistic in hindsight: According to the White House’s 2026 budget proposal, an SLS launch costs about $4 billion. Through last year, the total cost of the program has exceeded $60 billion.

The SLS program isn’t just way over budget. It’s way behind schedule too. Congress told it to fly by 2016, but the first launch didn’t come until 2022. The second launch will be Artemis II.

When the first Trump administration started the Artemis program in 2017, the vision was to send Americans to the moon and then Mars. As the program developed, officials set a goal of having humans on the moon again by 2024. In April 2021, SpaceX won the bidding process to build the Human Landing System—the lunar lander that would deliver the astronauts to the moon’s surface. Blue Origin then sued NASA over losing out to SpaceX, and NASA had to pause work until the lawsuit ended. The suit was resolved in November, at which point SpaceX and NASA returned to work. 

Infrastructure issues plagued Artemis, with repairs spanning months. Rocket launches require good weather, and launch windows can be tight, so a few days of bad weather can postpone a launch by weeks or months.

After Jared Isaacman became NASA administrator last year, the Artemis mission schedule underwent substantial structural changes. Artemis III, which had been set to be the mission that would send astronauts to our satellite’s surface, has now become Artemis IV, scheduled for 2028; the new Artemis III will test on-orbit capabilities but will stay in low Earth orbit. Further missions down the line are supposed to begin assembly of a U.S. lunar base. The current slate of missions run through Artemis X, projected to have a 2035 launch date.

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BACK TO THE MOON: Crewed Lunar Mission Artemis II Confirmed for Wednesday as NASA Says It’s ‘Ready’ for Historic Launch

In two days, Space exploration goes larger-than-life again.

While the MSM is doing its best not to acknowledge how historic the Artemis II mission will be, the day when humans return to the moon is upon us.

NASA is confirming Wednesday, April 1st, as the target date for the launch of the lunar mission.

The technical teams have found ‘zero technical issues’ leading up to the liftoff that will fly astronauts around the moon and back.

Space.com reported:

“That Artemis 2 launch window opens on Wednesday at 6:24 p.m. EDT (2324 GMT) and extends for two hours. If the launch is delayed or scrubbed for any reason, there are more opportunities for liftoff through April 6. But still, NASA officials are voicing a high degree of confidence in the mission’s chances of launching on the agency’s massive Space Launch System (SLS) rocket on time. Notably, NASA completed a flight readiness review for the mission ahead of SLS’ rollout to the pad on March 20, and has since flagged no issues or risk acceptances that need closing before clearing Artemis 2 to launch.”

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NASA Partially Lifts Redactions in James Webb Briefing Records Following Appeal

A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case involving congressional briefings on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has yielded additional records following a successful appeal, but the newly released material continues to be heavily redacted, leaving key portions of the briefing content concealed.

The case, labeled as 25-00860-F-HQ, stems from a September 22, 2024, FOIA request seeking “all briefings about the James Webb telescope and program, made for Congress,” including both classified and unclassified material related to discoveries made by the observatory. The request was originally denied with a “no records” determination, a conclusion later overturned on appeal.

As previously reported, NASA ultimately acknowledged that responsive records did exist and released a set of briefing slides in August 2025. However, those materials were almost entirely redacted under FOIA Exemption (b)(5), which protects pre-decisional and deliberative communications within government agencies.

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NASA Officials Investigating Cause of Mystery Condition That Suddenly Left an Astronaut Unable to Speak

NASA is reportedly reviewing the medical information of its astronauts following an unusual incident that left one of them unable to speak while aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

The incident, which occurred earlier this year, led to the first-ever evacuation of the ISS following a medical incident.

It was later revealed that 59-year-old Mike Fincke, a retired Air Force colonel and veteran astronaut who had served on multiple past missions, had been the crew member who experienced the condition that prompted the emergency action, although at that time, NASA officials had not revealed any further details about the nature of the medical concern.

Now, Fincke has revealed that on January 7, what began as a normal dinner break with his fellow crew members suddenly took an alarming turn when he found himself unable to speak.

“It was completely out of the blue,” Fincke recently told the Associated Press of the strange situation. “It was just amazingly quick.”

The crew had been in preparation for a planned spacewalk scheduled for the following day when the incident occurred. Although Fincke said he experienced no pain or other severe discomfort, the sudden onset of the mystery condition did cause alarm among other members of his crew, who immediately notified officials back on Earth about the situation.

“My crewmates definitely saw that I was in distress,” Fincke recalled of the situation. “It was all hands on deck within just a matter of seconds.”

For the next twenty minutes, Fincke said the odd condition persisted, which struck like a “very fast lightning bolt.” Gradually, his ability to speak returned, and Fincke said that he had never experienced anything like this in the past, nor since returning to Earth.

Although NASA did not reveal which astronaut had experienced the medical emergency, Fincke voluntarily came forward because of public speculation about what specifically caused the incident.

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NASA scientist backs evidence of non-human intelligence in Earth’s skies

A former NASA scientist has backed a groundbreaking study investigating mysterious flashes in the skies during the early nuclear age, decades before the first satellites were launched.

Ivo Busko, a retired NASA developer who worked at the Space Telescope Science Institute, published a pre-print paper this week that independently confirmed mysterious transient flashes first identified by astronomer Dr Beatriz Villarroel and her VASCO research team. 

Their October 2025 study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Scientific Reports.

Villarroel, from the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics in Sweden, identified a possible connection between nuclear tests conducted between 1949 and 1957 and an increase in mysterious bright spots known as ‘transients’ appearing in the sky.

These transients have proven difficult to explain using known natural phenomena, with Villarroel noting that some appeared highly reflective, similar to mirrors, and showed signs consistent with rotating objects.

Busko conducted an independent search of archival sky photographs from the 1950s, using a separate analytical method designed specifically to verify Villarroel’s earlier discoveries. 

His investigation uncovered dozens of transient flashes displaying the same unusual signatures reported by the VASCO team, including extremely short-duration bursts of light. 

Busko wrote that the findings ‘independently confirm the presence of such transients,’ adding further weight to the unusual flashes first reported by Villarroel’s team. 

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OVER THE MOON: NASA Artemis II Crew in Final Phase of Preparation for First Lunar Mission in Over Half a Century

The final stretch before lift-off.

Since 1972, no human being has orbited or set foot on the moon. And now, after much to-and-fro, it seems like the time has come to return to our natural satellite.

The four Artemis II astronauts arrived in Florida today (27), in the final phase of preparations for the historic mission.

Reuters reported:

“NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, along with Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, are set to launch from Kennedy Space Center as soon as April 1 aboard NASA’s towering Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, riding inside an Orion crew capsule built to carry humans into deep space. The roughly 10-day mission will ​send the crew on a high-speed loop around the Moon and back.”

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NASA Astronaut Responds to Online Panic Over “Tentacled” Object on ISS

A tentacled object seen in a viral photo from the International Space Station alarmed some viewers over the last few days.

A photo of a purple, egg-shaped object with what appear to be tentacles protruding led some users to believe it was an extraterrestrial creature hatching in space.

However, NASA astronaut Don Pettit cleared up those rumors by revealing the object was just a potato.

In a post on X, Pettit wrote, “I flew potatoes on Expedition 72 for my space garden, an activity I did in my off-duty time.”

“This is an early purple potato, complete with a spot of hook Velcro to anchor it in my improvised grow light terrarium,” added Pettit.

One user on X responded to Pettit by writing, “I genuinely thought this was some kind of egg hatching.”

Per The New York Post:

An image of a tentacled growth in space has caused an uproar online with freaked-out viewers imploring astronauts to “kill it with fire.”

Viral photos showed the floating, purple egg-shaped object with tendrils exploding out of it like the poster for the 1979 sci-fi horror flick “Alien.”

Thankfully, the real item isn’t as insidious as it seems. In a viral X post, NASA astronaut Don Pettit explained that the anomaly was an “orbiting” potato, dubbed Spudnik-1, that he grew onboard the International Space Station as part of an ongoing interstellar horticulture hobby.

“This is an early purple potato, complete with spot of hook Velcro to anchor it in my improvised grow light terrarium,” the scientist explained.

Horticulture is not the only thing on NASA’s radar lately.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman revealed on Tuesday that the space agency plans to spend nearly $20 billion over the next several years to build a base on the moon.

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Lunar Deception: A mind-blowing exposé of the moon landing hoax

If you think the Apollo moon landings were humanity’s greatest achievement, prepare to have your worldview shattered. “Lunar Deception: The Truth Behind the Apollo Moon Landings” is a meticulously researched, bombshell investigation that dismantles NASA’s official narrative, piece by piece, revealing one of the most audacious frauds in history.

This isn’t just another conspiracy theory. It’s a forensic dissection of government deception, media complicity and the psychological manipulation of the public. Drawing on declassified documents, whistleblower testimonies and modern AI analysis, the book presents irrefutable evidence that the moon landings were staged – a Cold War psyop designed to assert American dominance and justify trillions in taxpayer-funded space programs.

The smoking guns

One of the most damning pieces of evidence against Apollo is the Van Allen radiation belts – lethal zones of high-energy particles surrounding Earth. NASA’s own data shows radiation levels 1,000 times higher than a fatal human dose, yet astronauts supposedly passed through them unharmed with nothing but aluminum foil shielding. Modern physicists confirm that 1960s technology couldn’t protect them. So how did they survive? They didn’t—because they never left Earth’s orbit.

The Apollo photos are riddled with inconsistencies. Shadows from rocks, astronauts and the lunar module don’t align, suggesting multiple light sources—something impossible on the airless moon, where the sun is the sole illumination. AI-powered forensic analysis confirms that the lighting matches Hollywood studio setups, not the harsh, shadowless environment of lunar daylight.

When the lunar module descended, its rocket engine should have blasted a massive crater beneath it – yet NASA’s images show pristine, undisturbed dust. Even more suspicious? The module’s ascent stage allegedly took off with no visible flame or exhaust plume, defying physics.

Who filmed the Apollo 17 liftoff from the moon? NASA claims the camera was remotely controlled from Earth, but with a 2.5-second signal delay, the footage should have been jerky and out of sync. Instead, it’s smooth, perfectly framed and follows the module like a Hollywood tracking shot. The only explanation? It was staged on a soundstage with a human operator.

NASA admits it lost the original Apollo 11 telemetry tapes, erased the master recordings and misplaced the blueprints for the Saturn V rocket. If the moon landings were real, why obliterate the evidence? Because the truth was too dangerous – it would expose the entire operation as a $200 billion fraud.

The psychological warfare behind the hoax

The moon landings weren’t just about prestige – they were psychological operations designed to:

  • Intimidate the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
  • Justify NASA’s budget and the military-industrial complex.
  • Condition the public to blindly trust government narratives (a tactic later used for 9/11, pandemic and climate change).

Whistleblowers, including NASA engineers, astronauts’ family members and CIA operatives, have come forward with deathbed confessions, revealing that the landings were filmed at Eglin Air Force Base and Area 51, with Stanley Kubrick’s help.

Why this matters today

The Apollo fraud wasn’t just a historical lie—it set the stage for modern propaganda. If NASA could deceive the world about the moon landings, what else are they lying about?

  • Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) origins
  • Vaccine safety
  • Climate change narratives
  • Digital ID and CBDCs

The same institutions that faked the moon landings are now pushing globalist control schemes under the guise of “science” and “progress.”

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NASA Unveils Plan for First Nuclear-Powered Interplanetary Spacecraft

The first-ever nuclear-powered spacecraft built for interplanetary travel will set off on a mission to Mars in 2028.

The Space Reactor‑1 Freedom (SR-1 Freedom) project was unveiled in Washington on March 24. NASA leadership said it’s the first step toward nuclear power on the moon and for exploratory missions farther out in space, where solar panels and traditional chemical propulsion would be less and less effective.

The ship was introduced by Steve Sinacore, NASA’s Fission Surface Power program executive, who said it comes from utilizing more than 60 years of NASA’s research into fission nuclear propulsion and repurposing a power and propulsion unit already nearing completion.

It will be fueled with low-enriched uranium, producing more than 20 kilowatts of advanced electric propulsion primarily through the transfer of heat from the uranium. It will also be equipped with radiation shielding and high-rate direct-to-Earth communications with images and data.

SR-1 Freedom’s first mission will be a year-long journey to Mars for a mission called “Skyfall.” Its job will be to deliver a payload of three helicopter drones modeled after “Ingenuity,” the first helicopter to fly on Mars, to the surface. The aircraft will then take readings of and below the planet’s surface in anticipation of a crewed mission, such as searching for water as ice trapped beneath the surface, and scouting out a landing site.

NASA leaders didn’t announce where the launch would take place or disclose what kind of rocket would be used.

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NASA to spend $20 billion on moon base, cancel orbiting lunar space station

NASA announced on Tuesday it has canceled plans ​to deploy a space station in lunar orbit and will instead use components from the project to build ‌a $20 billion base on the moon’s surface, while also planning to send a nuclear-powered spacecraft to Mars.

U.S. space agency chief Jared Isaacman, an appointee of President Donald Trump who took charge at NASA in December, announced an array of changes to the Artemis moon program including an aim to send more robotic ​landers to the moon and lay the groundwork for using nuclear power on the lunar surface.

NASA also disclosed plans to ​launch a spacecraft called Space Reactor 1 Freedom to Mars before the end of 2028 in a ⁠mission it said would demonstrate advanced nuclear electric propulsion in deep space. NASA called this a major step forward in bringing nuclear ​power and propulsion from the laboratory to space. NASA said the spacecraft, once it reaches Earth’s planetary neighbor, will deploy helicopters for ​exploring Mars.

The Lunar Gateway station, largely already built with contractors Northrop Grumman (NOC.N), opens new tab and Intuitive Machines (LUNR.O), opens new tab subsidiary Lanteris Space Systems, was meant to be a space station in a lunar orbit.

“It should not really surprise anyone that we are pausing Gateway in its current form and focusing on infrastructure that supports sustained ​operations on the lunar surface,” Isaacman told a crowd of foreign delegates, companies and journalists at a day-long event at NASA’s headquarters ​in Washington.

Repurposing Lunar Gateway to create a base on the moon’s surface – a difficult undertaking – leaves uncertain the future roles of Japan, Canada and the ‌European Space ⁠Agency in the Artemis program, three key NASA partners that had agreed to provide components for the orbital station.

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