4–5 minutes

WASHINGTON — A new crew arrived at the International Space Station on July 14 on a launch witnessed in person by NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman.

A Soyuz-2.1a rocket lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 10:47 a.m. Eastern, placing the Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft into orbit. The spacecraft docked with the station’s Prichal module just over three hours later.

The spacecraft delivered Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina and NASA astronaut Anil Menon to the station, where they will spend the next eight months. It is the second flight to the ISS for Dubrov and Kikina and the first for Menon.

Among those attending the launch in Baikonur was Isaacman. He is the first NASA administrator to attend a launch there since October 2018, when then-Administrator Jim Bridenstine attended the Soyuz MS-10 launch, which suffered an in-flight abort but landed safely downrange of the launch site.

Isaacman said in February he planned to go to Baikonur for the launch, saying he had a “good friend that’s going to be going up on that mission, so it would be hard to imagine to miss it.” Anil Menon is married to Anna Menon, who flew with Isaacman on the Polaris Dawn private astronaut mission in 2024.

At the time, he said he would also attempt to meet with his Russian counterpart, Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Bakanov. There had been no face-to-face meeting between the agency heads since the October 2018 launch until last July, when Bakanov met with NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy before the Crew-11 launch in Florida.

NASA, in its press release about the launch, did not disclose any meetings between Isaacman and Bakanov, and Isaacman did not mention any in his own social media posts from the launch. Isaacman and Bakanov NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman (left) and Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Bakanov during a July 13 briefing to formally approve the crew of the Soyuz MS-29 mission. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

However, Bakanov told Russian media that he had met with Isaacman before the launch. Bakanov said Roscosmos had agreed to continue ISS operations through 2030, the scheduled retirement date of the station, after the agency had previously committed only through 2028.

He also said NASA and Roscosmos agreed “in principle” to continue bartering seats between Soyuz and commercial crew vehicles to ensure there will be at least one Russian and one American on the ISS should a vehicle be out of service for an extended period. Those seat barters allowed Anil Menon to fly to the station on Soyuz; Kikina was the first Russian to fly on a Crew Dragon, on the Crew-5 mission in 2022.

Bakanov said Roscosmos and NASA agreed to conduct “more detailed coordination” of their satellite constellations to avoid collisions, but the report did not elaborate on what that entailed.

Russian media also reported that Isaacman met with Denis Manturov, Russia’s deputy prime minister. Manturov said those discussions involved potential cooperation between future U.S.-led commercial space stations and the proposed Russian successor to the ISS, particularly for mutual assistance in the event of emergencies.

With Soyuz MS-29 now at the ISS, the station’s crew is performing handover activities ahead of the departure of Soyuz MS-28. That spacecraft will return Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergey Mikayev and NASA astronaut Chris Williams. Soyuz MS-28 is set to depart the station July 26 and land in Kazakhstan.

6–7 minutes

WASHINGTON — A Pegasus XL launched a mission to reboost a NASA astrophysics spacecraft on what may be the final flight of that rocket.

A Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket was deployed from its L-1011 carrier aircraft at 4:36 a.m. Eastern on July 3, after three days of delays caused by weather and technical issues. The rocket placed its payload, the 425-kilogram Link spacecraft from Katalyst Space, into low Earth orbit nearly 13 minutes later.

NASA said in a statement more than seven hours later that controllers had established contact with Link but did not provide any additional information about the status of the spacecraft.

Katalyst Space developed Link under a $30 million NASA contract awarded last September to attempt to save the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, or Swift, spacecraft in low Earth orbit. That gamma-ray observatory is in a decaying orbit and in danger of reentering late this year or early next year.

The company repurposed a low Earth orbit technology demonstration of its satellite servicing technology already in development for the Swift reboost mission, delivering a spacecraft ready for launch within nine months of contract award.

“This is an absolutely unprecedented development timeline,” said Kieran Wilson, principal investigator for Link at Katalyst, at a prelaunch briefing June 17.

Now in orbit, Katalyst Space will spend the next two weeks performing in-orbit checks of the spacecraft, after which Link will begin its approach to Swift and survey the spacecraft, a process expected to take two to three weeks. Link and Swift An illustration of Katalyst Space’s Link spacecraft (left) approaching NASA’s Swift gamma-ray observatory. Credit: Katalyst Space

That survey will include examining Swift and determining the best locations on the spacecraft that Link’s three robotic arms can grapple. Project officials said before the launch that while they have identified locations on Swift that they think the arms can grapple, they want to inspect the spacecraft to see if they are still suitable for capture.

“We’re confident that as long as we have a spacecraft that can function at a fundamental level, that gives us the freedom and flexibility to work through any issues that we find during rendezvous and the more challenging dynamical operation,” Wilson said. Swift is projected to remain above an altitude of 300 kilometers, below which the reboost mission is not feasible, until at least October.

Swift will be able to assist that effort by moving in cooperation with Link. “Swift is an unprepared but cooperative partner in the rendezvous,” he said. “We’ll be moving through a bunch of maneuvers as a tandem team between the Swift mission ops and the Link mission ops teams to perform those inspections at various ranges.”

If Link can attach to Swift, it will use its ion engines to raise the orbit, currently at about 360 kilometers, to 550 to 600 kilometers. Link will then detach and use its remaining propellant to lower itself and speed up its deorbit. The reboost process will take three months, and after Link departs, Swift will resume science operations.

NASA has called the Swift reboost mission a “high-risk, high-reward” effort because of the challenges in trying to raise the orbit of a spacecraft not designed to be serviced, as well as Katalyst Space’s limited spaceflight experience. However, the agency argues the benefits, if successful, extend to other NASA missions and the broader industry.

“We didn’t want to set the precedent that anything that comes out of orbit has to be boosted,” said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, director of NASA’s astrophysics division, at the prelaunch briefing.

In the case of Swift, extending its mission helps the astrophysics community because of the mission’s value in monitoring gamma-ray bursts and other high-energy phenomena.

“This is an observatory with unique capabilities for astrophysics,” he said. “So we decided, yeah, we want to go save this one this time because of how special it is.”

A successful Swift reboost could enable similar efforts, including for the Hubble Space Telescope, whose orbit is also decaying and could reenter in the first half of the 2030s. Domagal-Goldman said at an advisory committee meeting in June that he would be open to a Hubble reboost mission, provided the telescope’s operating costs can be reduced.

The launch is also the last scheduled flight of a Pegasus rocket. The air-launched rocket was developed by Orbital Sciences Corp. and first flown in 1990. The vehicle, which at times in the 1990s launched five to six times a year, has flown only six times in the last 15 years. The launch of Link was the first Pegasus launch since a responsive space mission in June 2021.

Katalyst Space selected Pegasus last November because of the unique orbit Swift is in, with an inclination of about 21 degrees. Northrop reportedly offered Katalyst a Pegasus rocket, in storage after being built for another customer, at a low cost.

At the prelaunch briefing, Wes Collier, vice president of launch systems at Northrop Grumman, left open the door for future Pegasus launches. “We certainly are open to follow-on contracts or new opportunities for Pegasus,” he said. “We think that it’s a great system for future responsive launch opportunities.”

Collier offered a similar sentiment in a Northrop statement after the launch.

“Ready for launch in under eight months, Pegasus is the go-to choice for missions that need to get off the ground now,” he said. “Its air-launch design and proven Orion motors mean payloads can get to orbits that are harder for other rockets to reach.”

5–6 minutes

David Tshere (right), Botswana’s minister of communications and innovation, signs the Artemis Accords June 25 as NASA Deputy Administrator Matt Anderson looks on. Credit: SpaceNews/Jeff Foust

WASHINGTON — The African nation of Botswana is the latest country to sign the Artemis Accords outlining best practices for space exploration.

David Tshere, Botswana’s minister of communications and innovation, signed the Accords on behalf of the country during a ceremony at NASA Headquarters on June 25. Botswana is the 68th country to sign the Accords since they were rolled out in 2020 and the ninth to do so this year.

“Botswana, like many countries who have interest in space exploration, found it important to become a signatory to the Artemis Accords to promote safe, transparent and sustainable civil space exploration and to advance international cooperation under a shared framework for responsible activities in space,” he said at the event.

Botswana is a newcomer to spaceflight, having launched its first satellite, a cubesat called BOTSAT-1, on a SpaceX Transporter rideshare mission last year. The satellite, built by a university in the country with the assistance of Bulgarian smallsat developer EnduroSat, carried a hyperspectral imager from South African company Dragonfly Aerospace.

He noted that the milestone was important enough that the country’s president, Duma Gideon Boko, attended the launch and that the date of the launch is now marked as National Space Day in Botswana.

Tshere said he hoped that signing the Accords would lead to a space cooperation working group between Botswana and the United States. “As a newcomer to space exploration, Botswana looks to the U.S.A. not only to help build our national capacity but also to partner with us in identifying and maximizing the opportunities that arise from our participation in the Artemis framework.”

While the Artemis Accords have been used to help refine aspects of key space treaties, such as the Outer Space Treaty, NASA’s current leadership has stated it also sees the accords as a vehicle for greater international participation in the Artemis lunar exploration effort.

“We are building a permanent, sustainable moon base, and NASA has invited every Artemis Accords signatory to take part in this endeavor,” said NASA Deputy Administrator Matt Anderson at the event.

Others noted that cooperating with Botswana has benefits beyond space, given the country’s mining economy.

“I applaud the Trump administration’s focus on securing America’s critical access to rare earth elements in Africa, and space diplomacy will play a key role in building lasting relationships,” Mike Gold, president of Redwire Space and a former NASA official who helped lead development of the Artemis Accords, told SpaceNews. “We must leverage our leadership in space generally and the Artemis program specifically to combat China’s aggressive outreach in Africa.”

Greg Autry, senior adviser for space at the State Department’s Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, speaks at the Artemis Accords signing event June 25. Credit: SpaceNews/Jeff Foust

The signing comes as the State Department is enhancing its space diplomacy efforts. The department announced June 24 that it had named Greg Autry as a senior adviser for space in its Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, which includes space issues.

Autry had been associate provost for space commercialization and strategy at the University of Central Florida. He was twice nominated to be NASA’s chief financial officer, in 2020 and again in 2025, but his nomination was not taken up by the Senate either time. He noted on social media that his appointment to the State Department post was temporary and that he would return to the University of Central Florida once it ended.

“The Accords lay out a common vision for responsible space exploration and use. The growth of the Accords, now 68 signatories from the original eight in 2020, speaks to the broad appeal of that vision,” he said in remarks at the signing ceremony.

Gold praised Autry and his decision to join the State Department to assist on space matters. “Greg’s experience and expertise in the space field is singular and only surpassed by his knowledge of and desire to beat China in space and on Earth,” he said.

6–7 minutes

WASHINGTON — A report by NASA’s inspector general is the latest to highlight the problems that the increasing number of launches is posing to spaceports.

NASA’s Office of Inspector General released a report June 22 on NASA launch infrastructure at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. It concluded that those spaceports are not equipped to handle the growing demand for government and commercial launches.

“NASA’s launch infrastructure is dated and lacks the capacity to meet the growing demands of the agency and government and commercial partners,” it stated. “Based on current launch projections, Kennedy and Wallops are expected to operate near capacity in the 2028 to 2029 time frame.”

NASA data included in the report projected launches supported by KSC, which includes those at neighboring Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, to grow from 109 in 2025 to 268 in 2030. Launches from Wallops would grow from 17 in 2025 to 44 in 2030, according to the agency.

That projected growth is pushing the limits of what the spaceports can handle, particularly when accounting for events like launch scrubs and major tests. The report said that KSC will reach its limits by early 2029, while Wallops could be at capacity by 2028.

Those launch rates are projected to continue to grow beyond 2030. According to the report, Blue Origin expects to perform more than 50 New Glenn launches a year by 2030 and more than 120 annually by 2035, figures the company has not widely discussed before. The report said the company approached NASA about another launch site on KSC property, although the site identified by NASA, north of Launch Complex 39, “is a protected wetland and would have to undergo lengthy and extensive federal and local review and approval processes.”

Concerns about launch activity exceeding capacity at U.S. spaceports are not new. In March 2025, executives with three major launch companies — Blue Origin, SpaceX and United Launch Alliance — all warned that spaceports would not be able to meet the demand they projected for their vehicles.

A report by the Commercial Space Federation released in May also noted that high demand for launches could overwhelm existing spaceports. Its recommendations included improved coordination and investment in existing spaceports while considering new launch sites, such as inland or sea-based facilities.

The NASA inspector general’s report, though, provided additional details about the conditions at KSC in particular and the demands on infrastructure there. The center’s electrical infrastructure is aging, the report noted, and demand from future Starship launches at Launch Complex 39A could exceed capacity.

Similarly, the center’s gaseous nitrogen pipelines, which extend to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, cannot simultaneously support launches of Blue Origin’s New Glenn and ULA’s Vulcan Centaur or the Space Launch System. The report added that Blue Origin warned that future SLS launches could create “1- to 2-month blackout periods” in the gaseous nitrogen pipeline.

Those problems are exacerbated by funding shortfalls. The report stated that NASA funding for launch facilities and other infrastructure across its field centers has been falling over the last five years when adjusted for inflation. The agency is also restricted from receiving money from companies using launch facilities and has used agreements, like the one with SpaceX for using LC-39A, that limit its ability to recover costs.

Last year’s budget reconciliation bill included $250 million for infrastructure improvements at KSC. “However, NASA has estimated that projects to upgrade and improve infrastructure at the center could cost at least $1 billion,” the report stated. “In our judgment, it is imperative that NASA strategically prioritize funding to address Kennedy’s most pressing common-use infrastructure issues, including those related to electrical power distribution, gas supply and distribution, and transportation.”

In a response included in the report, Brian Hughes, named by NASA as director of KSC last month, accepted recommendations that included prioritizing that $250 million for launch infrastructure, as well as studying the effects of increased launch-related road traffic on the center’s roadways and assessing ways to charge fees for the use of launch infrastructure to fund maintenance and upgrades.

The report added that infrastructure problems at Wallops are not as acute as those at Kennedy, in part because of recent upgrades to the facility’s power distribution system and construction underway on a new bridge connecting Wallops Island to the mainland. However, Wallops may need to invest in additional pipelines for gaseous nitrogen and helium, and the site expects traffic from increased launches to require “frequent and necessary road repairs.”

5–6 minutes

WASHINGTON — NASA has selected for development a space science mission that will study how space weather interacts with Earth’s atmosphere.

NASA announced June 18 that the Dynamic Atmosphere-Ionosphere Explorer, or DAPHNE, mission will proceed into the next phase of development, with a launch planned for no earlier than 2029.

DAPHNE was one of three concepts selected by NASA for study in 2024 for a mission concept called Dynamical Neutral Atmosphere-Ionosphere Coupling, or DYNAMIC, that was recommended by the heliophysics decadal survey in 2013 to examine the coupling between regions of the atmosphere and space weather.

DAPHNE will fly two identical satellites equipped with three instruments, dubbed MIGHTI, FUVI and PLATO. They will study conditions such as composition, temperature and winds in the thermosphere, a region of the upper atmosphere.

“Scientists have long studied how space weather affects Earth, but much less is known about how Earth’s lower atmosphere affects the upper atmosphere and space weather,” said Aimee Merkel, a researcher at the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, or LASP, who is the principal investigator for the mission, in a statement. “DAPHNE will fill this major gap in scientific understanding and help answer long-standing questions about how Earth interacts with our sun.”

NASA did not disclose an estimated cost for DAPHNE but noted the DYNAMIC program has a cost cap of $250 million, excluding launch. A formal cost estimate will come at a confirmation review in 2027. Partnering with LASP on the mission are BAE Systems and the Naval Research Laboratory.

NASA bills the mission as part of a broader effort to understand space weather, with applications beyond Earth. “As NASA sends astronauts beyond Earth’s magnetic protection to the moon, Mars and beyond, DAPHNE will join the NASA science fleet strategically located across the solar system to provide data that will help mission planners predict and mitigate the effects of space weather for the benefit of all,” said Nicky Fox, NASA associate administrator for science, in a statement.

The selection of DAPHNE comes a month after NASA announced a revised strategy for its heliophysics division, one that puts a greater emphasis on the applications of research to society.

“We really want you to focus not only on the foundational science and the transformational science, on that critical innovation that only NASA can provide, but also connecting it to the applications, connecting it to the end users,” Joe Westlake, director of NASA’s heliophysics division, said at an online town hall meeting May 20.

“Can we clearly articulate how this discovery will eventually protect our power grid or our GPS or astronauts? Is the research applicable, or is it some niche science that only serves as sort of a single subdiscipline?” he said.

That shift, he said, involves going from research siloed in specific missions and disciplines to “strategic purpose themes” that he said will create “bigger, broader capabilities and science findings.” The division will also go from “curiosity-driven investigations” to “outcome-driven research.”

“We’re trying to push our researchers, push our science, into meaningful outcomes,” he said. “Instead of having randomly spread research across our activities, trying to drive it into a more strategic framework so that we can achieve the scientific outcomes that were asked for in the decadal survey.”

He and other division officials said that may affect how it solicits proposals for future missions, but they did not go into details during the town hall.

“Whether you’re somebody who embraces change or somebody who thrives in the routine, there is a shift that is coming,” Westlake said. “We have, as heliophysics, defined our community, but now we get to define what it means to everyone, what it means to society.”

5–7 minutes

Katalyst Space’s Link spacecraft was recently installed on the Pegasus rocket that will launch it in late June on a mission to raise the orbit of NASA’s Swift gamma-ray observatory. Credit: NASA

WASHINGTON — A high-risk mission to raise the orbit of a NASA astrophysics spacecraft is set to launch later this month after less than a year of development.

Link, a spacecraft developed by Katalyst Space Technologies, is scheduled to launch June 27 on a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket. The air-launched vehicle will operate out of Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.

Link is designed to approach and then grapple NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, a gamma-ray observatory in low Earth orbit. The orbit of that spacecraft, launched in 2004, has been decaying due to atmospheric drag and could reenter as soon as late this year. Link will raise Swift’s orbit, allowing it to continue operations for years to come.

NASA selected Katalyst last September to develop Link under a $30 million contract. While the reboost mission has yet to launch, officials said simply getting to this point was a success.

“I have to be honest, no one thought it was going to be possible. No one thought we would get as far as we’ve already gotten today,” said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, director of NASA’s astrophysics division, at a June 17 briefing at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, where Link was integrated with the Pegasus rocket.

He credited both the teams at Katalyst and Northrop for being ready to launch quickly, as well as those within the agency. “People didn’t think the agency itself could bureaucratically do something this fast, and yet we did.”

“Over the last nine months, we have gone from a clean sheet to a spacecraft that is currently integrated on a rocket on an airplane ready to go to Kwaj for launch,” said Kieran Wilson, principal investigator for Link at Katalyst. “This is an absolutely unprecedented development timeline.”

He credited the “exceptional urgency” NASA emphasized in the mission requirements. “When we set out, one of the very few requirements from the NASA team was, you must launch before it’s too late, and we have been able to meet that readiness timeline.”

Link must launch and reach Swift before that spacecraft’s altitude descends below 300 kilometers. Brad Cenko, principal investigator for Swift at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said Swift should reach that altitude in October based on current estimates of the spacecraft’s decaying orbit.

“At the moment we think we have several months where Swift will be at a sufficiently high altitude to give Katalyst folks a great chance to capture and boost us,” he said.

That capture and boost will be risky. Swift was not designed to be serviced and lacks grappling fixtures that Link could use. Link is also Katalyst’s first satellite servicing mission.

Wilson said the docking will be helped by the fact that Swift is still operational and can control its attitude. “Swift is an unprepared but cooperative partner in the rendezvous,” he said.

As Link approaches within tens of meters, Swift will maneuver in tandem, allowing Link to inspect potential capture locations and determine which are free of debris, such as crumbling multilayer insulation, that might interfere with grappling.

“We have primary, backup and secondary backup options for features that we believe are suitable for capture using our robotics,” he said. Link is equipped with three robotic arms that will attempt to attach to different points on Swift, but the reboost mission can proceed with only one arm attached to Swift.

He argued, though, that the risks of the capture and reboost were secondary to simply getting the spacecraft ready in time. “When we kicked off the program, I think everyone recognized the biggest risk would be that we weren’t ready to launch in time,” he said. “We have been able to retire that risk over the last few months by building, testing, getting ready to operate a spacecraft.”

“We’re confident that as long as we have a spacecraft that can function at a fundamental level, that gives us the freedom and flexibility to work through any issues that we find during rendezvous and the more challenging dynamical operations,” he added.

“From a programmatic standpoint, I consider this a success already just from the fact that we’re even going to try this,” Domagal-Goldman said.

He acknowledged there are risks remaining regarding Link’s ability to capture and reboost Swift, as well as uncertainties about space weather conditions that could accelerate Swift’s orbital decay and complicate the reboost effort.

“There still might be risks that we cannot control ahead of us,” he said. “I’m just deeply thankful that we’re even giving this a go.”

I do want to take this moment to address two of the questions I have been seeing since the crew announcement.

Why are there no women assigned to Artemis III?

I have seen reactions ranging from disappointment to outrage. I have personally been to space twice with 50% female crews. My closest advisors and some of the smartest engineers I know are women. In our latest NASA leadership organization, nearly 50% of the Center Directors and Mission Directorate leadership are women. The last astronaut candidate class selected under this Administration was majority female because they were the best of the best, including one astronaut I previously went to space with.

In a world with so much controversy, I hope this can be a moment where we celebrate the astronauts selected, respect the integrity of the process, and recognize the extraordinary depth of talent across the entire corps. The crew selection does not involve any political appointees. The Astronaut Office assigns the crew that gives the mission the best chance of meeting its objectives, taking into account many factors, including the background and expertise of the astronauts, such as test pilot experience, development work on specific programs, and availability. For example, those raising this concern may not be aware of the pipeline of crews already preparing to launch to the Space Station, or those who have been undergoing lunar-specific training that would be a better fit for a future surface mission.

The Artemis III astronauts are experienced, qualified, and deserve to be celebrated for the mission they have been assigned, just as the crews that follow will be celebrated when their time comes. We have an extraordinary astronaut corps, and every mission and every crew is part of a larger campaign to get America back to the Moon and to build the future we all dreamed about as children.

What are the objectives for Artemis III if both landers will not be fully ready?

Coming off a highly successful lunar mission like Artemis II, it is not surprising that the bar is set high for Artemis III. I think it is important to understand how difficult and dangerous it is to land astronauts on the Moon. We have not done it in a very long time, and we want to draw from a past playbook for success. That means getting into a cadence of launching, learning, and rolling improvements into the next mission.

First and foremost, it is imperative for SLS to be flying with some frequency for operational currency and, honestly, safety. Earlier this year, it was very clear across NASA leadership that an additional mission was necessary in 2027. It is also imperative to gain interoperability data from rendezvous and docking with landers in Earth orbit. We do not need those landers that are still in development to be fully capable and certified for landing on the Moon on Artemis III, but we do need to test certain systems and controllability. Not to mention, we are moving quickly into a future where we do not require a single rocket to bring everything necessary for a mission to space, and as such, gaining experience with multi-launch campaigns and on-orbit assembly is directionally correct.

The Blue Origin test lander for Artemis III will incorporate many of the most important systems and subsystems that have not previously been operated by the provider, including ECLSS in a crew cabin, and other avionics. With SpaceX, they have demonstrated many of those capabilities continuously on Crew Dragon, but other controllability tests are important based on the negative-X axis acceleration that will be necessary when Starship undertakes the TLI burn to the Moon with a docked Orion.

After Artemis III, we will learn a lot and roll in further improvements, be that hardware, software, or procedural updates, as both providers undertake end-to-end uncrewed demonstrations to the surface in 2028, in advance of Artemis IV, where NASA astronauts will finally complete the grand return to the Moon.

As I said in my remarks yesterday, when Gene Cernan left the lunar surface on Apollo 17, he said, “We leave as we came, and, God willing, we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind.” We are returning, and we are doing so with the fire carried forward from Apollo, the lessons learned from Artemis II, the crew of Artemis III, and all those who will follow. NASA will send the very best crews for the right missions. If the composition of our astronaut corps and our latest class of candidates says anything, it is that we have exactly the talent required to get the job done.

Godspeed Artemis III, and all those who will follow.