NASA will hold a series of events today (March 24) that update us on the agency’s plans for the moon and more, and you can watch them live.
The agency is hosting a day-long set of panels and briefings at its headquarters in Washington, D.C. “to outline how the agency is executing President Donald J. Trump’s National Space Policy and accelerating preparations for America’s return to the surface of the moon by 2028,” NASA wrote in an update on Monday (March 23).
Three of these events will be livestreamed, according to the agency’s NASA+ schedule. You can watch them here at Space.com or directly via the space agency.
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The online action will kick off at 9 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT), with an event called “Ignition: NASA’s Plan for the Moon.” That will be followed at 1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT) by “Ignition: NASA’s Plan for Science and Discovery” and a news conference at 4:45 p.m. EDT (2045 GMT).
The late-afternoon briefing will “provide an update on the agency’s progress toward implementing the National Space Policy and recapping major announcements discussed throughout the day,” NASA officials wrote in Monday’s update.
That news conference will feature some NASA heavy hitters. The participants are:
- Administrator Jared Isaacman
- Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya
- Dana Weigel, program manager, International Space Station Program
- Carlos Garcia-Galan, program executive, Moon Base
- Steve Sinacore, program executive, Fission Surface Power
- Dr. Nicola Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate
- Dr. Lori Glaze, program manager, Moon to Mars Program
Today’s news will come on top of recent changes to NASA’s Artemis program of moon exploration.
In late February, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced that the program’s first crewed lunar landing will come on the Artemis 4 mission, not Artemis 3 as originally planned. Artemis 3 will now go to Earth orbit and practice rendezvous and docking between the program’s Orion capsule and one or both of the private Artemis crew landers (SpaceX’s Starship and Blue Origin’s Blue Moon).
NASA is currently gearing up to launch Artemis 2, which will send four astronauts on a loop around the moon and back to Earth, as soon as April 1. Artemis 3 and Artemis 4 are targeted for 2027 and 2028, respectively.