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This time next year, if everything stays on schedule, NASA will send its first crewed mission to the moon, since the end of the Apollo program. Artemis II will be the first flight around the moon in more than 50 years. Its goal will be to test out the Orion capsule and all the other equipment, so that by 2026, Artemis III can put astronauts back ON the moon. The Artemis program is aimed to kickstart a new, more enduring era of space travel that leads to Mars.It's also intentionally more representative than Apollo was. The Artemis program will eventually put the first woman on the moon, as well as the first person of color. It's all as historic and high stakes as it gets, and also pretty daunting. NPR's Scott Detrow goes behind the scenes at the Johnson Space Center in Houston to see how the team is preparing. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org.
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In 1977, two spacecraft, Voyager 1 and 2, were launched on their mission from Cape Canaveral to explore Jupiter and Saturn.
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After a nasty computer glitch five months ago, Voyager 1 is once again able to communicate with Earth in a way that mission operators can understand.
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A new lunar time zone is all about ensuring the success of future, multinational missions to the moon.
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NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with NASA's astronaut selection manager April Jordan about what the agency is looking for in the next generation of space travelers.
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A unique research project is using NASA high altitude aircraft and teams of ground-based citizen scientists to observe the eclipse.
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Mars is seen as the next frontier in space exploration. But given the hostile environment on the red planet, is there a good reason why?
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The Voyager 1 probe, the first human-made object to reach the space between stars, has suffered a serious problem that NASA experts are struggling to understand and repair.
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A look at this week’s space headlines
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NASA officials plan to take down the International Space Station at the end of 2030. They are collaborating with private industries, which will develop its replacement.