00:00Why is everybody going back to the moon?
00:03Well, I think from one person that I spoke to, it's a place that we went and we've always wanted
00:09to go back ever since.
00:10You know, after the Apollo program, we've kind of been, I don't want to say stuck in low Earth orbit,
00:17but we've definitely much more focused on the space that is closer to home.
00:21Right. We had the reusable space shuttle and then we created the International Space Station.
00:26And those two programs have been kind of the primary focus of NASA for the last few decades.
00:33But now there's kind of this idea that, you know, we've we've been there and we've done that with low
00:38Earth orbit.
00:39We don't want to leave, but we want to keep going.
00:42And so I think the moon provides a really attractive place to send people.
00:48And, you know, kind of at the heart of NASA, they like to have a big flagship, you know, human
00:55spaceflight program.
00:56To move the needle forward.
00:59And so that, you know, the moon is the next logical step for us to go.
01:04Does it, Lauren, set us up for a mission to Mars?
01:07Is that the next step following what happens with Artemis 2?
01:12It's certainly something that they hope will allow us to learn more about what it will take to live on
01:20the surface of Mars.
01:21Right. So the moon has a lot of advantages in that it's close.
01:24And so we can potentially get there in a much shorter amount of time than it would take to get
01:28to Mars.
01:29It could serve as some place a little bit like our outposts in Antarctica.
01:35Right. We can send supplies there.
01:37We can bring people back a little more quickly if we need to.
01:41It still poses quite a lot of challenges, but it will give us kind of this proving ground on what
01:47it will take to live off of another surface.
01:49And then we can take those lessons and then apply them to Mars living, which is going to be, you
01:55know, a much more substantial challenge because we will not be able to come and go between Mars very easily.
02:02And the communication delay between us and Mars is also can become quite significant.
02:08So any astronauts that will live on the red planet will have to be much more autonomous than than the
02:14ones that will be on the moon.
02:16You know, what's interesting, Lauren, and it's not just the U.S.
02:18You guys highlight China and what they're doing, and I'm assuming there might be other nations looking at it as
02:23well.
02:23But I just, you know, I think about the International Space Lab and there was kind of collaboration and joint.
02:28These are not inexpensive ventures, but by countries separately focusing on it,
02:34it sounds like it's important whether it leads to technological developments, whether it's there's a weapon, you know, defense aspect
02:42of it.
02:43I mean, walk us through why this may be bigger term, longer term is so important.
02:49Oh, absolutely.
02:50I mean, there are so many different reasons and benefits that are invoked as to why we go back to
02:56the moon.
02:56You know, I kind of laid out the existential reason, but, you know, there's been discussion about jumpstarting the so
03:05-called lunar economy.
03:07So finding ways to make money off the moon.
03:10Potentially, those will probably be in service to the space world.
03:15So making it easier to live near the moon.
03:21Maybe not necessarily applications for back on Earth right away, but we can find that out when we get there,
03:27right?
03:27You also talked about China.
03:29You know, there's a lot of discussion about whether, you know, we should be the ones to get back to
03:35the moon before China lands its astronauts there.
03:38There's a lot of concern about, you know, China potentially making it more difficult for us to explore the moon
03:43in the ways that we want.
03:45If they were to set up some kind of, you know, perimeter, obviously that is a very, you know, long
03:51-term scare, but that is what is invoked as to why we need to get there.
03:56And then there's also discussion of the moon as the ultimate high ground, as it were.
04:00So, you know, the farther you are in space, you know, the better vantage point you could have with assets
04:07in orbit around Earth.
04:09So lots of discussion about, you know, why we need to get back, what we'll do when we get there.
04:16But first, we just need to get there.
04:19And that's taking a bit of time, as you can tell.
04:22And NASA is in a moment of truth.
04:24It really needs to prove itself and prove that the money that it's spent on this is of good use.
04:31You noted in the Bloomberg Originals piece that we started with, Lauren, that there have been a lot of detractors.
04:37And you showed a Bloomberg Opinion piece from a couple of years ago that said that this is a giant
04:41waste of taxpayer money.
04:43What's the position that NASA finds itself in right now?
04:46And how does that compare to the first space race and how NASA was looked at, not just by lawmakers,
04:52but by Americans?
04:54Yeah, absolutely.
04:56I think NASA is certainly faced with needing to show that it can execute on these ambitious programs.
05:03You know, the rocket and the capsule that are flying potentially tomorrow have been in development well over a decade
05:12now.
05:13They had their first flight together back in 2022, an uncrewed mission.
05:17And here we are in 2026.
05:20That's a big gap between those two flights.
05:23And so there's a lot of criticism about how slow the project has been, how much money, you know, each
05:29time they delay or there's, you know, another year that goes by that costs more money to keep the programs
05:36going.
05:37And so there's been many costs overruns, billions of dollars over budget.
05:41And so at some point, you know, people have loaded canceling.
05:46At this point, I think they're trying to show, OK, let's let's take the vehicles that we have developed and
05:51accelerate.
05:52So there's a lot of, you know, enthusiasm now, especially with the new administrator, Jared Isaacman, to ramp up the
06:00launch cadence for these missions to go more quickly and to do even more ambitious things with the money that
06:07they have put into invested into this program.
06:11He has called for a lot of new changes, a lot of really ambitious goals.
06:17And so, you know, there's not a long time to to get those things done.
06:21So we'll see if he can actually accomplish them during his time as the administrator.
06:25You know, what's interesting to Lauren and, you know, you've got Boeing involved, Lockheed Martin, like your kind of traditional,
06:30iconic defense companies and space companies, if you will.
06:35But it's interesting. We have seen from when my dad was involved, it was all government work, you know, government
06:41contracts, but working for the government.
06:43Now you've got kind of the private space exploration industry, whether it's Elon Musk, whether it's Jeff Bezos.
06:49Why not? Some might say, why not just leave it to the private sector to figure this out?
06:53Just got about a minute left.
06:55Sure. Well, that's what's so interesting about Artemis, right?
06:59It's a bit of a mashup of the old and new way of doing space.
07:02So you mentioned Boeing and Lockheed.
07:04Their contracts are very much the old NASA way.
07:07NASA oversees them, pays the entire bill and then owns the vehicles when they're done.
07:12But the lunar landers that are being developed for Artemis from SpaceX and Blue Origin,
07:16they're much more outsourced with NASA putting in partial investment money, but then they will, the companies will own those
07:25vehicles when they are done.
07:26There are two conflicting approaches, and it still remains to be seen whether one is the better way or the
07:34other.
07:34So I think we'll have to revisit that question later on down the road.
07:3820 seconds, pretty cool down there right now?
07:41It's actually, you know, I come to Florida often for these launches.
07:44The weather is pristine, and I can't complain, and that's not always the case when I come here.
07:50So I'm looking forward to it.
07:52Fingers crossed for tomorrow's launch.
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