Latest / Elon Musk Podcast / NASA's Artemis 2 prepares for February launch to the Moon

Transcript

NASA's Artemis 2 prepares for February launch to the Moon · Elon Musk Podcast

• 0:00
  America's return to deep space with people on board is
• 0:05
  imminent. NASA's Artemis 2 mission, the
• 0:08
  first crude voyage beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in
• 0:12
  1972, has a launch window opening February 6th of 2026
• 0:18
  with a fully stacked Space Launch System rocket and Orion
• 0:21
  spacecraft scheduled to roll out to Launchpad 39-B on January
• 0:28
  17th of 2026. And after resolving critical
• 0:32
  heat shield and life support system concerns that delayed the
• 0:34
  mission's seven months, NASA officials expressed confidence
• 0:38
  the vehicle was ready to safely carry 4 astronauts around the
• 0:42
  moon on a 10 day journey that will see them travel 4600 miles
• 0:48
  beyond the lunar far side, farther than anybody has ever
• 0:53
  been in human history. Now, the most significant
• 0:57
  technical hurdle facing Artemis 2 stemmed from unexpected damage
• 1:01
  to Orion's heat shield during Artemis 1 mission in December
• 1:05
  2022, engineers discovered that the AV coat ablative material
• 1:10
  cracked and shed unevenly across approximately 100 locations
• 1:16
  during RE entry. NASA's investigation, completed
• 1:19
  in December of 2024, identified the root cause.
• 1:22
  During Orion's planned skip entry maneuver, where the
• 1:26
  capsule skips in and out of the atmosphere, heat accumulated
• 1:30
  inside the heat shield faster than gases could escape or vent
• 1:35
  through the material, creating internal pressure that caused
• 1:38
  fracturing. Now, rather than replacing the
• 1:40
  already installed heat shield, which would have caused
• 1:43
  significant additional delays, possibly six months to a year,
• 1:48
  NASA opted for a trajectory modification.
• 1:51
  Now Artemis 2 will fly a shortened skip entry profile
• 1:55
  that avoids the temperature conditions that triggered gas
• 1:57
  generation. Now.
• 1:59
  This reduces available launch opportunities by approximately
• 2:03
  50% compared to Artemis One, but keeps the mission on track.
• 2:08
  Rick Henfling Lead Artemis 2 entry flight directory confirm
• 2:13
  the modification is not going to replicate the temperature
• 2:17
  environment which was conducive to that gas generative rate.
• 2:22
  Now additional technical issues resolved in recent months
• 2:25
  include faulty motor valve circuitry in the environmental
• 2:29
  control and life support system, the ECLSSA bent flight
• 2:33
  termination system cable discovered during final
• 2:36
  checkouts, which was replaced in January of twenty 26th 5th and
• 2:41
  an Orion pressurization valve that exhibited problems before
• 2:45
  December's countdown test. NASA also swapped our S 25
• 2:49
  engine E2O63 with E2O61 in April after discovering A hydraulic
• 2:54
  leak, now the first ever vertical RS25 replacement in the
• 2:59
  program history. Now the four astronaut crew
• 3:02
  completed a crucial countdown demonstration test on December
• 3:06
  20th of last year, marking the final major crew milestone
• 3:10
  before launch. Commander Reed Weisman, pilot
• 3:14
  Victor Glover and mission specialist Christina Koch and
• 3:17
  Jeremy Hansen suited up in their Orion Crew Survival System
• 3:21
  suits, performed the ceremonial walk out from astronaut crew
• 3:25
  quarters, traveled to the VAB the Vehicle Assembly Building,
• 3:29
  rode the elevator 275 feet to the crew access arm, and boarded
• 3:34
  the Orion spacecraft for a full 5.5 hour rehearsal of launch day
• 3:39
  procedures. The countdown proceeded to T -,
• 3:42
  29 seconds before the planned cut off.
• 3:46
  Teams successfully navigated real time challenges including
• 3:50
  audio communications problems and life support system issues
• 3:53
  during close out, demonstrating readiness to handle these
• 3:57
  contingencies. The test was originally
• 3:59
  scheduled for November 19th but was postponed.
• 4:02
  Do what we blemish on a thermal barrier around the crew access
• 4:05
  hatch that required patching. Now.
• 4:07
  The crew has trained intensively for over 2.5 years since their
• 4:11
  April 2023 assignment, completing more than 30
• 4:14
  integrated mission simulations with flight control teams of
• 4:18
  July 2025. Suited crew test marked the
• 4:21
  first time all four astronauts entered the fully powered
• 4:25
  spacecraft together, running through emergency scenarios
• 4:28
  including sudden cabin leaks and life support functions.
• 4:31
  And the Artemis 2 crew have and the Artemis 2 crew are going to
• 4:38
  represent multiple historic firsts.
• 4:40
  Victor Glover will become the first person of color to travel
• 4:43
  to the moon. Christina Koch, who holds the
• 4:45
  record for longest single Space Flight by a woman at 328 days,
• 4:49
  will become the first woman to journey to the moon.
• 4:52
  Jeremy Hansen, a Canadian Space Agency astronaut and Royal
• 4:55
  Canadian Air Force fighter pilot, will become the first non
• 4:59
  American to leave Earth's orbit and travel to the moon.
• 5:02
  Commander Reed Weissman, a former Navy test pilot and chief
• 5:06
  of NASA's astronaut office, leads this crew.
• 5:11
  Now it's going to be about 10 days for this mission.
• 5:14
  It's going to follow a multi translunar injection trajectory.
• 5:19
  Here's the days and what's going to happen.
• 5:21
  They won launch aboard the SLS and Orion will then enter a high
• 5:27
  elliptical Earth orbit. And then during day one and day
• 5:31
  2, the crew will test life support systems.
• 5:33
  While they're orbiting, they'll perform manual flight
• 5:35
  demonstrations, conduct proximity operations with the
• 5:39
  spent upper stage, and then as it goes into day three, they're
• 5:45
  going to do a trans lunar injection burn which sends Orion
• 5:49
  hurtling towards the moon. Days three through 6 will be a
• 5:54
  four day outbound coast. No thrusters, they're just
• 5:58
  coasting towards the moon. Crew continues systems
• 6:01
  verification. So the whole time they're going
• 6:03
  to be working day six and seven, they're going to fly by the moon
• 6:08
  approximately 4600 miles beyond the moon's far side.
• 6:12
  The crew may observe the fully illuminated far side and this
• 6:16
  will be the time that the first humans ever will see this
• 6:20
  directly. And day 7 to 10, free return
• 6:25
  trajectory back towards Earth. Day 10 is go time, the modified
• 6:30
  skip reentry we talked about earlier will happen.
• 6:33
  And then the splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of
• 6:37
  San Diego. Now, Glover has said that
• 6:43
  they're testing the Oran capsule, they're testing the
• 6:45
  suits, they're testing the landing and recovery procedures,
• 6:49
  they're testing the flight control team.
• 6:51
  And it's a much more hostile environment because we're so far
• 6:55
  away from home. Mostly people go to the
• 6:59
  International Space Station now. They'll go in low Earth orbit.
• 7:03
  It's the first time in 50 years plus that humans will be going
• 7:07
  to as far away as the moon and then 4600 miles beyond the
• 7:12
  moon's far side, the farthest they've ever gone, which is
• 7:16
  incredible. But the path to February 2026
• 7:19
  has been marked by significant schedule shifts.
• 7:23
  This was targeted for late 2024. The 1st or the second flight,
• 7:27
  Artemis slipped to September 2025, then to April 2020.
• 7:31
  Sixth, following the December 2024 announcement of heat shield
• 7:34
  investigation results, integration efficiencies allowed
• 7:38
  NASA to pull the target forward to February 2020 Sixth, by March
• 7:42
  2025. Now, Jared Isaacman was sworn in
• 7:46
  December 18th. He's the hilarious Don.
• 7:50
  He was a he's a billionaire. He's a NASA administrator now,
• 7:54
  and he was sworn in December 18th after a prolonged
• 7:57
  nomination process. It went back and forth.
• 7:59
  He's Elon's friend, so Trump didn't like him.
• 8:02
  There's politics going on there, but he's in.
• 8:05
  And within the next three years, he says we're going to land
• 8:08
  American astronauts again on the moon.
• 8:10
  But it's time with the infrastructure to stay.
• 8:13
  Now, when he says this, he's saying we are battling China in
• 8:19
  space. Basically, if China needs to go
• 8:22
  to the moon for some reason, we want to go there again.
• 8:25
  But we're not just going to go there and just grab a couple
• 8:28
  rocks, couple moon stones. We want to set down a base of
• 8:31
  operations. And that is so we can flex our
• 8:35
  muscles and beat our chests and be stronger than other people on
• 8:39
  the earth, which is fair enough. That's what we did for Apollo.
• 8:42
  But do we really need to do that still?
• 8:44
  Are we still trying to beat our chest and being better than
• 8:46
  everybody? Yes, that's, I guess that's what
• 8:49
  we're doing now. But Jared Iseman is not about
• 8:51
  that. Jared is a Science first
• 8:55
  administrator for NASA. He's a really nice person.
• 8:59
  I've had the pleasure to DM him a few times and every time it's
• 9:04
  been very nice. And he seems to be a really nice
• 9:07
  person every time I've talked to him.
• 9:09
  Nothing but help, nothing but good vibes.
• 9:12
  So I'm glad Jared is in this position.
• 9:16
  He's going to do wonderful things for NASA, and I hope that
• 9:20
  it all goes well over there. And for this trip, the budget
• 9:24
  proposal called for a 24% cut to NASA May of 2025.
• 9:30
  That's incredible. Why would you cut 24% of NASA's
• 9:33
  budget, the most beloved part of our government?
• 9:38
  It doesn't make any sense, especially with the return on
• 9:40
  investment that NASA gets. For every dollar, you get about
• 9:43
  9 or $10 back for every dollar you invest in NASA.
• 9:47
  So I don't see why you would cut that much funding.
• 9:50
  That was the largest single year reduction in agency history,
• 9:53
  including ending SLS in Orion after Artemis 3 and cancelling
• 9:57
  the Lunar Gateway. That's what Trump wanted to do.
• 10:01
  Senator Ted Cruz LED a congressional rescue, adding $10
• 10:04
  billion for NASA to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed in
• 10:08
  July 4th of 2025. This secured $4.1 billion for
• 10:12
  SLS rockets supporting Artemis 4 and five, 2.6 billion for
• 10:17
  Gateway and funding to continue ISS operations through 2025.
• 10:23
  Ted Cruz, good on you. We need NASA here now.
• 10:29
  Cruz said the moon mission must happen at President Trump's term
• 10:32
  or else China will beat us there and build the first moon base.
• 10:36
  Now, if China does build the first moon base, why are they
• 10:39
  doing it? Is it because they're the big
• 10:42
  bad enemy? Or is it because they just want
• 10:43
  to explore and they have great technology?
• 10:47
  If you ask them, they'll say it's for science.
• 10:50
  That's what we said too. Remember that when we went to
• 10:52
  the moon the first time. And then later we realized that
• 10:56
  the government wasn't telling us the truth, and it was all
• 10:59
  because we wanted to be stronger than Russia.
• 11:02
  So I just want to open your eyes to everything.
• 11:05
  I'm very positive about this, and I think it's great.
• 11:07
  But there's always different causes, right?
• 11:10
  And of course, we want to go back to the moon and settle a
• 11:13
  base because if China builds the first moon base, instead of just
• 11:18
  saying like, hey China, that's great, we want to help you.
• 11:22
  Or hey China, can we work together in some way?
• 11:24
  Let's do this together, but instead make it into a
• 11:29
  competition. But if it, if that's what it
• 11:32
  takes to get people back to the moon and build a base, of
• 11:35
  course, like I'm all for that. I just don't want anybody to get
• 11:38
  hurt. That's it.
• 11:39
  Now there's going to be lunar landing Artemis 3.
• 11:44
  So if Artemis 2 lands as a prerequisite to Artemis 3 and
• 11:50
  they think that's going to happen in mid 2027, but that's
• 11:53
  not going to happen and never happens on time.
• 11:55
  So more than likely 2029, maybe 20-30, they're going to have to
• 11:59
  go over all of the data that Artemis 2 gathered.
• 12:05
  And also, SpaceX isn't even close to landing a Starship on
• 12:10
  the moon yet. They haven't even refueled in
• 12:13
  orbit. So mid 2027 seems like a
• 12:17
  stretch, right? It'll be the first crude landing
• 12:20
  since 1972. And if SpaceX completes
• 12:24
  development of the HLS. So back in October 2025, Sean
• 12:29
  Duffy, who is the acting NASA chief, said, I love SpaceX, it's
• 12:33
  an amazing company. The problem is they're behind.
• 12:36
  He called him out, he called out Elon Musk, Sean Duffy, and then
• 12:39
  Elon went on tirade. They updated their website to
• 12:42
  show that there's other ways that they could do the HLS that
• 12:46
  I don't know why they didn't do that to begin with.
• 12:49
  Why didn't they just do the easier way in the faster way
• 12:53
  first? But instead, after Sean Duffy
• 12:56
  called them out, they had a meeting and put out a bunch of
• 13:01
  renders of the Starship and they basically said, hey, we're going
• 13:05
  to get this done. So they want to build confidence
• 13:08
  with their investors as well. The people that are investing in
• 13:10
  SpaceX, even though they are private investors, they still
• 13:13
  need those investors money in order to build Starlink and
• 13:17
  build Starship. And SpaceX has completed 49 of
• 13:21
  its required milestones for Artemis lunar Lander contract,
• 13:24
  but yet has not demonstrated the critical capabilities including
• 13:28
  orbital refuelling. That's approximately 15 to 20
• 13:32
  tanker flights needed to fuel Starship for lunar operations,
• 13:37
  15 to 20 tankers. You have to do that with an exit
• 13:41
  about a week. You have to fly 20 rockets in a
• 13:45
  week in order for these. That's what Elon has said
• 13:49
  before. They can do it in seven days.
• 13:51
  Within seven days, they can fly all these tankers in free fuel.
• 13:54
  Now. An internal NASA review
• 13:56
  established February 2020 eighth as the 70% confidence baseline
• 14:02
  for a Starship HLS readiness, suggesting the mid 2027 target
• 14:06
  carries significant risk. NASA open bidding for additional
• 14:09
  moon landing contracts because of this, and that happened in
• 14:13
  October 2025 as a hedge. So Blue Origin, if Artemis is
• 14:19
  not working out well for Starship, Blue Origin is going
• 14:22
  to swoop in and get that contract.
• 14:27
  Now there is Artemis 4, which is going to happen in late 2028,
• 14:31
  which will be the first docking of Lunar Gateway and it'll
• 14:34
  require a new mobile launcher. So that might, we're going to
• 14:38
  push that back to 2032. Artemis 5 we're going to push
• 14:41
  back to 2034, which includes ESA's E Spirit module in
• 14:46
  Canada's Canadarm 3 and then Artemis 6.
• 14:49
  Who knows when it's going to happen, but Gateway crew in
• 14:51
  science, airlock integration. So instead of having just an
• 14:56
  Oran capsule that gets to moon orbit, docks with a Starship,
• 15:01
  Starship goes to the lunar surface and they're going to
• 15:05
  have the gateway there too. And NASA says this, but I don't
• 15:09
  know if it's going to happen after 20, after 2031 annual
• 15:15
  lunar landings plan. And I'm not being a hater, I'm
• 15:17
  just being a realistic here. Post 2030 because it's politics,
• 15:21
  right? And if they decide to pull the
• 15:22
  funding because it's not bringing any money in.
• 15:26
  The Space Launch System is not only a rocket, it does provide
• 15:30
  thousands of people high paying jobs throughout the United
• 15:34
  States of America. Engineers, scientists, all the
• 15:39
  people that support this program, they get paid a lot of
• 15:42
  money and therefore they pump that money back into the
• 15:46
  economy. And then America makes money
• 15:48
  from those people. So they need SLS and they need
• 15:51
  to keep this going. But post 2031, who even knows if
• 15:55
  it's going to be around. So there are some milestones
• 15:58
  left before humans go back to space.
• 16:02
  The target date for the rollout to Launchpad 39-B will be
• 16:04
  January 17th, 2026. There's going to be a wet dress
• 16:08
  rehearsal in late January 2026. There's going to be a flight
• 16:13
  readiness review after the wet dress rehearsal.
• 16:17
  So sometime early February 1st maybe, maybe late January 25th
• 16:25
  or something. Who knows when the wet dress
• 16:26
  rehearsal is going to be completed.
• 16:28
  Launch window opens February 6th, 2026.
• 16:31
  The wet dress rehearsal will load over 730,000 gallons of
• 16:36
  liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen into the rocket.
• 16:39
  That's a process that proved challenging during Artemis 1
• 16:42
  preparations when there were a ton of hydrogen leaks which
• 16:46
  caused repeated delays. NASA will conduct multiple
• 16:49
  countdown rehearsals to T 30 seconds without the crew aboard
• 16:54
  and Acting Associate Administrator Lori Glaze assess
• 16:57
  the current readiness, said. Right now, we could still make
• 17:00
  the February launch. We've got to have a lot of
• 17:03
  things go smoothly and go well, but it's still feasible.