With Chris Burnett, Retired USMC, Candidate for U.S. Congress (MD-6).

Read More...

Faith & Freedom 250 - Episode 17: George Washington’s Warning: Morality & Religion Are Essential Courtesy of The Herzog Foundation.

Read More...

Birthright Citizenship In SCOTUS

Read More...

On today’s show, Josh takes a deep dive into the historical roots of Left-wing political violence. He explains how these movements stretch back to the late 1700s and highlights some of the violent episodes that shaped their legacy. Josh is also joined by Jamie Glazov, author of the new book United in Hate. Together, they discuss why elements of the modern Left often gravitate toward authoritarian ideas and how that tension intersects with debates over human rights and democracy.

Read More...

A magnitude 4.6 earthquake shook Northern California early Thursday morning, awakening residents across a 100-mile area, including San Francisco. The U.S. Geological Survey reported that the quake was centered near Boulder Creek in the Santa Cruz Mountains at around 1:40 a.m. Residents as far north as Petaluma also reported feeling the tremor. There are no immediate reports of serious damage, and authorities say the region is assessing the impact. This follows a series of smaller quakes in the San Francisco Bay Area earlier this year, the largest of which was a magnitude 4.2 in February.

Read More...

The Senate is expected to move quickly Thursday to pass a measure funding most of the Department of Homeland Security, as lawmakers work to end the longest partial government shutdown in U.S. history. House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune announced a two-step plan Wednesday aimed at fully funding DHS. While the measure has support from President Donald Trump, it remains unclear how soon the House will act, and some Republican lawmakers are expected to oppose parts of the proposal. Under the plan, the Senate would fund most DHS operations immediately, while Republicans plan to address U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol funding separately in later legislation. Lawmakers say the two-step approach is designed to restore funding quickly while navigating internal party disagreements. The shutdown, now the longest in U.S. history, has left thousands of DHS employees working without pay, contributing to delays and disruptions in services, including airport security.

Read More...

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has rescinded a policy that required his office to personally approve Department of Homeland Security spending over $100,000. The rule, implemented by former Secretary Kristi Noem, faced criticism for slowing disaster response efforts, particularly at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Critics said it created unnecessary delays in delivering relief to communities affected by hurricanes, floods, and other emergencies. Mullin, who was sworn in last week, said the change will help speed up funding and improve response times for states and local agencies. “We want to make sure relief gets to the people who need it as quickly and efficiently as possible,” Mullin said in a statement. The move represents Mullin’s first major policy adjustment since taking office and is seen as a step toward reducing bureaucratic bottlenecks that had hampered disaster recovery operations.

Read More...

A state investigation has found that the deaths of three Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies in a 2025 grenade explosion involved serious and willful safety violations. Officials said the department failed to provide proper training and left explosives unattended, contributing to one of the department’s deadliest single-incident losses. The July 2025 explosion at a training facility killed detectives Joshua Kelley-Eklund, Victor Lemus, and William Osborn, members of the arson and explosives team. The deputies had recovered two grenades the previous day, believing them to be inert. One detonated at the training site, while the second remains missing. California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health issued eight citations totaling about $350,000 in fines in January. The sheriff’s department is appealing the fines, citing limited access to federal training materials and ongoing investigations. The department has said it is cooperating with state authorities while updating its training protocols and equipment to prevent future tragedies.

Read More...

President Donald Trump is once again threatening to pull the United States out of NATO, describing the alliance as a “paper tiger.” His comments come amid ongoing debates over U.S. defense commitments and the role of NATO in global security. White House correspondent Greg Clugston reports that Trump’s remarks signal a continuation of his critical stance toward the alliance, which has long been a cornerstone of American foreign policy. The president did not provide a clear timeline for any potential withdrawal but emphasized that he believes NATO member countries are not contributing enough to the collective defense. Trump’s threat raises questions about how allies in Europe might respond and whether the United States would face diplomatic or strategic repercussions. Analysts say such statements could heighten uncertainty about Washington’s long-term commitments to the alliance, though past administrations have stressed that the U.S. remains a key NATO partner.

Read More...

How is the War Perceived in the Tar Heel State

Read More...

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday Washington's "core strategic objectives" in the Iran war were nearing completion. "I'm pleased to say that these core strategic objectives are nearing completion," Trump said in a primetime address. Trump said on Wednesday Washington will strike Iran "extremely hard" over the next two to three weeks and hit the country into the "Stone Ages." "We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. We are going to bring them back to the Stone Ages, where they belong," Trump said in a nationally televised address.

Read More...

Explaining the funding deal POTUS mediated between the House & Senate GOP

Read More...

President Trump's Full Address to the nation on "Operation Epic Fury".

Read More...

This Won't Be a Forever War

Read More...

Back to the Moon!

Read More...

Police responded to shots fired in Brooklyn, NY Wednesday afternoon around 1 p.m. Authorities say a 7-month-old girl in a stroller was shot in the head and killed. She was pronounced dead at a hospital soon after. An investigation is underway, with ballistic evidence recovered at the scene.

Read More...

NASA is preparing to launch the first crew of astronauts toward the moon in over 53 years with its second Artemis mission, a critical test flight in humanity's broader lunar goals as the U.S. races to reassert leadership in space faced with growing competition from China. Three U.S. and one Canadian astronaut are due for liftoff aboard NASA's Orion capsule and Space Launch System rocket on Wednesday for a 10-day test mission swinging around the moon and back, a winding journey taking them deeper into space than humans have ever gone before. The mission is the first crewed test flight in NASA's Artemis program, the flagship U.S. effort to begin regular flights to the moon, at an estimated cost of at least $93 billion since 2012. Not since Apollo 17 in 1972 have humans touched down on the moon's surface, a tricky feat NASA aims to repeat in 2028 at the rugged lunar south pole. The U.S. is the only country to have put humans on another celestial body with its six lunar landings of the Apollo program, driven by competition with the former Soviet Union. U.S. officials have more recently focused on China, a formidable technological rival that has made steady progress in its own moon program in recent years with a string of robotic lunar landings and a 2030 goal to put its own crew on the surface. NASA astronaut Christina Koch, Artemis II mission specialist, on Sunday said the moon is a "witness plate" to the solar system's formation, and a stepping stone to Mars, "where we might have the most likelihood of finding evidence of past life." "Many, many countries have recognized the value that there is in exploring further into the solar system, to the moon and on to Mars," she told reporters. "They recognize that not only can we gain all these extremely tangible benefits, but that we have the opportunity to answer the question that could be the question of our lifetime, which is, are we alone?" "Answering that question starts at the moon," she said. "The question is not should we go, but should we lead, or should we follow?" Through a series of increasingly advanced Artemis missions extending into the next decade, the U.S. aims to set precedent for how others will operate and coexist on the moon's surface, where someday countries and companies can exploit rocky lunar resources and practice for much more difficult missions to Mars. The other crew members are NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman, and Jeremy Hansen, who will be the first Canadian astronaut to reach the lunar vicinity. Hansen's participation was part of a 2020 agreement between NASA and the Canadian Space Agency. "It was the result of decades of contribution and strategic investment on our part that led to this participation," said Mathieu Caron, head of CSA's astronaut office, citing Canadian robotics contributions on the International Space Station. COMMERCIAL LUNAR MARKET NASA is relying on an array of companies in its moon program, hoping to stimulate a commercial lunar market in the future, the value of which is hard to estimate, analysts say. Boeing and Northrop Grumman lead SLS and Lockheed Martin builds Orion for NASA. SpaceX and Blue Origin are developing their own landers with NASA funding, but under contracts that allow them to offer the spacecraft to other customers. A January PricewaterhouseCoopers report estimates $127 billion in revenues by 2050 from lunar surface activities, with investments potentially reaching $72 billion to $88 billion through the same period. For now, and in the near future, governments will drive companies' lunar strategies and revenue. It will be a long time before key infrastructure, such as energy and communications systems, develop to the point where commercial growth exists on the moon independently of government funding, said Akhil Rao, an economist at analysis firm Rational Futures who was a research economist at NASA. Rao, who was among the group of NASA economists and space policy staff laid off last year during the Trump administration's sweeping federal workforce cuts, said he does "not see a short-run economic value that companies would be able to derive that would allow NASA to be hands-off." The Artemis II mission will pose a greater test of NASA's Orion capsule and SLS, which conducted a similar uncrewed mission in 2022. The astronauts on board will test critical life-support systems, crew interfaces, navigation and communications. Liftoff is scheduled for April 1, though it could happen any day after until April 6, depending on weather conditions in Florida and any last-minute snags with the rocket. Thereafter, another launch window, determined largely by orbital mechanics between Earth and the moon, opens on April 30. Artemis III, planned for 2027, will involve the Orion capsule docking in Earth's orbit with NASA's two lunar landers - the Blue Moon system from Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Starship from Elon Musk's SpaceX. The delicate tag-up will demonstrate how the landers will pick up astronauts before heading for the moon's surface. That mission was added to the program in February by NASA's new administrator, Jared Isaacman, a billionaire private astronaut who has more broadly shaken up the program with new objectives. His decision pushed the program's first crewed lunar landing to Artemis IV.

Read More...

NASA is preparing to launch the first crew of astronauts toward the moon in over 53 years with its second Artemis mission, a critical test flight in humanity's broader lunar goals as the U.S. races to reassert leadership in space faced with growing competition from China. Three U.S. and one Canadian astronaut are due for liftoff aboard NASA's Orion capsule and Space Launch System rocket on Wednesday for a 10-day test mission swinging around the moon and back, a winding journey taking them deeper into space than humans have ever gone before. The mission is the first crewed test flight in NASA's Artemis program, the flagship U.S. effort to begin regular flights to the moon, at an estimated cost of at least $93 billion since 2012. Not since Apollo 17 in 1972 have humans touched down on the moon's surface, a tricky feat NASA aims to repeat in 2028 at the rugged lunar south pole. The U.S. is the only country to have put humans on another celestial body with its six lunar landings of the Apollo program, driven by competition with the former Soviet Union. U.S. officials have more recently focused on China, a formidable technological rival that has made steady progress in its own moon program in recent years with a string of robotic lunar landings and a 2030 goal to put its own crew on the surface. NASA astronaut Christina Koch, Artemis II mission specialist, on Sunday said the moon is a "witness plate" to the solar system's formation, and a stepping stone to Mars, "where we might have the most likelihood of finding evidence of past life." "Many, many countries have recognized the value that there is in exploring further into the solar system, to the moon and on to Mars," she told reporters. "They recognize that not only can we gain all these extremely tangible benefits, but that we have the opportunity to answer the question that could be the question of our lifetime, which is, are we alone?" "Answering that question starts at the moon," she said. "The question is not should we go, but should we lead, or should we follow?" Through a series of increasingly advanced Artemis missions extending into the next decade, the U.S. aims to set precedent for how others will operate and coexist on the moon's surface, where someday countries and companies can exploit rocky lunar resources and practice for much more difficult missions to Mars. The other crew members are NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman, and Jeremy Hansen, who will be the first Canadian astronaut to reach the lunar vicinity. Hansen's participation was part of a 2020 agreement between NASA and the Canadian Space Agency. "It was the result of decades of contribution and strategic investment on our part that led to this participation," said Mathieu Caron, head of CSA's astronaut office, citing Canadian robotics contributions on the International Space Station. COMMERCIAL LUNAR MARKET NASA is relying on an array of companies in its moon program, hoping to stimulate a commercial lunar market in the future, the value of which is hard to estimate, analysts say. Boeing and Northrop Grumman lead SLS and Lockheed Martin builds Orion for NASA. SpaceX and Blue Origin are developing their own landers with NASA funding, but under contracts that allow them to offer the spacecraft to other customers. A January PricewaterhouseCoopers report estimates $127 billion in revenues by 2050 from lunar surface activities, with investments potentially reaching $72 billion to $88 billion through the same period. For now, and in the near future, governments will drive companies' lunar strategies and revenue. It will be a long time before key infrastructure, such as energy and communications systems, develop to the point where commercial growth exists on the moon independently of government funding, said Akhil Rao, an economist at analysis firm Rational Futures who was a research economist at NASA. Rao, who was among the group of NASA economists and space policy staff laid off last year during the Trump administration's sweeping federal workforce cuts, said he does "not see a short-run economic value that companies would be able to derive that would allow NASA to be hands-off." The Artemis II mission will pose a greater test of NASA's Orion capsule and SLS, which conducted a similar uncrewed mission in 2022. The astronauts on board will test critical life-support systems, crew interfaces, navigation and communications. Liftoff is scheduled for April 1, though it could happen any day after until April 6, depending on weather conditions in Florida and any last-minute snags with the rocket. Thereafter, another launch window, determined largely by orbital mechanics between Earth and the moon, opens on April 30. Artemis III, planned for 2027, will involve the Orion capsule docking in Earth's orbit with NASA's two lunar landers - the Blue Moon system from Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Starship from Elon Musk's SpaceX. The delicate tag-up will demonstrate how the landers will pick up astronauts before heading for the moon's surface. That mission was added to the program in February by NASA's new administrator, Jared Isaacman, a billionaire private astronaut who has more broadly shaken up the program with new objectives. His decision pushed the program's first crewed lunar landing to Artemis IV.

Read More...

Scott Jennings provides a behind the scenes interview with NASA, as it prepares for tonight's launch.

Read More...

For the first time since 1972, NASA is sending astronauts to the moon again.

Read More...

With Chris Burnett, Retired USMC, Candidate for U.S. Congress (MD-6).

Read More...

Faith & Freedom 250 - Episode 17: George Washington’s Warning: Morality & Religion Are Essential Courtesy of The Herzog Foundation.

Read More...

Birthright Citizenship In SCOTUS

Read More...

On today’s show, Josh takes a deep dive into the historical roots of Left-wing political violence. He explains how these movements stretch back to the late 1700s and highlights some of the violent episodes that shaped their legacy. Josh is also joined by Jamie Glazov, author of the new book United in Hate. Together, they discuss why elements of the modern Left often gravitate toward authoritarian ideas and how that tension intersects with debates over human rights and democracy.

Read More...

A magnitude 4.6 earthquake shook Northern California early Thursday morning, awakening residents across a 100-mile area, including San Francisco. The U.S. Geological Survey reported that the quake was centered near Boulder Creek in the Santa Cruz Mountains at around 1:40 a.m. Residents as far north as Petaluma also reported feeling the tremor. There are no immediate reports of serious damage, and authorities say the region is assessing the impact. This follows a series of smaller quakes in the San Francisco Bay Area earlier this year, the largest of which was a magnitude 4.2 in February.

Read More...

The Senate is expected to move quickly Thursday to pass a measure funding most of the Department of Homeland Security, as lawmakers work to end the longest partial government shutdown in U.S. history. House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune announced a two-step plan Wednesday aimed at fully funding DHS. While the measure has support from President Donald Trump, it remains unclear how soon the House will act, and some Republican lawmakers are expected to oppose parts of the proposal. Under the plan, the Senate would fund most DHS operations immediately, while Republicans plan to address U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol funding separately in later legislation. Lawmakers say the two-step approach is designed to restore funding quickly while navigating internal party disagreements. The shutdown, now the longest in U.S. history, has left thousands of DHS employees working without pay, contributing to delays and disruptions in services, including airport security.

Read More...

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has rescinded a policy that required his office to personally approve Department of Homeland Security spending over $100,000. The rule, implemented by former Secretary Kristi Noem, faced criticism for slowing disaster response efforts, particularly at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Critics said it created unnecessary delays in delivering relief to communities affected by hurricanes, floods, and other emergencies. Mullin, who was sworn in last week, said the change will help speed up funding and improve response times for states and local agencies. “We want to make sure relief gets to the people who need it as quickly and efficiently as possible,” Mullin said in a statement. The move represents Mullin’s first major policy adjustment since taking office and is seen as a step toward reducing bureaucratic bottlenecks that had hampered disaster recovery operations.

Read More...

A state investigation has found that the deaths of three Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies in a 2025 grenade explosion involved serious and willful safety violations. Officials said the department failed to provide proper training and left explosives unattended, contributing to one of the department’s deadliest single-incident losses. The July 2025 explosion at a training facility killed detectives Joshua Kelley-Eklund, Victor Lemus, and William Osborn, members of the arson and explosives team. The deputies had recovered two grenades the previous day, believing them to be inert. One detonated at the training site, while the second remains missing. California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health issued eight citations totaling about $350,000 in fines in January. The sheriff’s department is appealing the fines, citing limited access to federal training materials and ongoing investigations. The department has said it is cooperating with state authorities while updating its training protocols and equipment to prevent future tragedies.

Read More...

President Donald Trump is once again threatening to pull the United States out of NATO, describing the alliance as a “paper tiger.” His comments come amid ongoing debates over U.S. defense commitments and the role of NATO in global security. White House correspondent Greg Clugston reports that Trump’s remarks signal a continuation of his critical stance toward the alliance, which has long been a cornerstone of American foreign policy. The president did not provide a clear timeline for any potential withdrawal but emphasized that he believes NATO member countries are not contributing enough to the collective defense. Trump’s threat raises questions about how allies in Europe might respond and whether the United States would face diplomatic or strategic repercussions. Analysts say such statements could heighten uncertainty about Washington’s long-term commitments to the alliance, though past administrations have stressed that the U.S. remains a key NATO partner.

Read More...

How is the War Perceived in the Tar Heel State

Read More...

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday Washington's "core strategic objectives" in the Iran war were nearing completion. "I'm pleased to say that these core strategic objectives are nearing completion," Trump said in a primetime address. Trump said on Wednesday Washington will strike Iran "extremely hard" over the next two to three weeks and hit the country into the "Stone Ages." "We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. We are going to bring them back to the Stone Ages, where they belong," Trump said in a nationally televised address.

Read More...

Explaining the funding deal POTUS mediated between the House & Senate GOP

Read More...

President Trump's Full Address to the nation on "Operation Epic Fury".

Read More...

This Won't Be a Forever War

Read More...

Back to the Moon!

Read More...

Police responded to shots fired in Brooklyn, NY Wednesday afternoon around 1 p.m. Authorities say a 7-month-old girl in a stroller was shot in the head and killed. She was pronounced dead at a hospital soon after. An investigation is underway, with ballistic evidence recovered at the scene.

Read More...

NASA is preparing to launch the first crew of astronauts toward the moon in over 53 years with its second Artemis mission, a critical test flight in humanity's broader lunar goals as the U.S. races to reassert leadership in space faced with growing competition from China. Three U.S. and one Canadian astronaut are due for liftoff aboard NASA's Orion capsule and Space Launch System rocket on Wednesday for a 10-day test mission swinging around the moon and back, a winding journey taking them deeper into space than humans have ever gone before. The mission is the first crewed test flight in NASA's Artemis program, the flagship U.S. effort to begin regular flights to the moon, at an estimated cost of at least $93 billion since 2012. Not since Apollo 17 in 1972 have humans touched down on the moon's surface, a tricky feat NASA aims to repeat in 2028 at the rugged lunar south pole. The U.S. is the only country to have put humans on another celestial body with its six lunar landings of the Apollo program, driven by competition with the former Soviet Union. U.S. officials have more recently focused on China, a formidable technological rival that has made steady progress in its own moon program in recent years with a string of robotic lunar landings and a 2030 goal to put its own crew on the surface. NASA astronaut Christina Koch, Artemis II mission specialist, on Sunday said the moon is a "witness plate" to the solar system's formation, and a stepping stone to Mars, "where we might have the most likelihood of finding evidence of past life." "Many, many countries have recognized the value that there is in exploring further into the solar system, to the moon and on to Mars," she told reporters. "They recognize that not only can we gain all these extremely tangible benefits, but that we have the opportunity to answer the question that could be the question of our lifetime, which is, are we alone?" "Answering that question starts at the moon," she said. "The question is not should we go, but should we lead, or should we follow?" Through a series of increasingly advanced Artemis missions extending into the next decade, the U.S. aims to set precedent for how others will operate and coexist on the moon's surface, where someday countries and companies can exploit rocky lunar resources and practice for much more difficult missions to Mars. The other crew members are NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman, and Jeremy Hansen, who will be the first Canadian astronaut to reach the lunar vicinity. Hansen's participation was part of a 2020 agreement between NASA and the Canadian Space Agency. "It was the result of decades of contribution and strategic investment on our part that led to this participation," said Mathieu Caron, head of CSA's astronaut office, citing Canadian robotics contributions on the International Space Station. COMMERCIAL LUNAR MARKET NASA is relying on an array of companies in its moon program, hoping to stimulate a commercial lunar market in the future, the value of which is hard to estimate, analysts say. Boeing and Northrop Grumman lead SLS and Lockheed Martin builds Orion for NASA. SpaceX and Blue Origin are developing their own landers with NASA funding, but under contracts that allow them to offer the spacecraft to other customers. A January PricewaterhouseCoopers report estimates $127 billion in revenues by 2050 from lunar surface activities, with investments potentially reaching $72 billion to $88 billion through the same period. For now, and in the near future, governments will drive companies' lunar strategies and revenue. It will be a long time before key infrastructure, such as energy and communications systems, develop to the point where commercial growth exists on the moon independently of government funding, said Akhil Rao, an economist at analysis firm Rational Futures who was a research economist at NASA. Rao, who was among the group of NASA economists and space policy staff laid off last year during the Trump administration's sweeping federal workforce cuts, said he does "not see a short-run economic value that companies would be able to derive that would allow NASA to be hands-off." The Artemis II mission will pose a greater test of NASA's Orion capsule and SLS, which conducted a similar uncrewed mission in 2022. The astronauts on board will test critical life-support systems, crew interfaces, navigation and communications. Liftoff is scheduled for April 1, though it could happen any day after until April 6, depending on weather conditions in Florida and any last-minute snags with the rocket. Thereafter, another launch window, determined largely by orbital mechanics between Earth and the moon, opens on April 30. Artemis III, planned for 2027, will involve the Orion capsule docking in Earth's orbit with NASA's two lunar landers - the Blue Moon system from Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Starship from Elon Musk's SpaceX. The delicate tag-up will demonstrate how the landers will pick up astronauts before heading for the moon's surface. That mission was added to the program in February by NASA's new administrator, Jared Isaacman, a billionaire private astronaut who has more broadly shaken up the program with new objectives. His decision pushed the program's first crewed lunar landing to Artemis IV.

Read More...

NASA is preparing to launch the first crew of astronauts toward the moon in over 53 years with its second Artemis mission, a critical test flight in humanity's broader lunar goals as the U.S. races to reassert leadership in space faced with growing competition from China. Three U.S. and one Canadian astronaut are due for liftoff aboard NASA's Orion capsule and Space Launch System rocket on Wednesday for a 10-day test mission swinging around the moon and back, a winding journey taking them deeper into space than humans have ever gone before. The mission is the first crewed test flight in NASA's Artemis program, the flagship U.S. effort to begin regular flights to the moon, at an estimated cost of at least $93 billion since 2012. Not since Apollo 17 in 1972 have humans touched down on the moon's surface, a tricky feat NASA aims to repeat in 2028 at the rugged lunar south pole. The U.S. is the only country to have put humans on another celestial body with its six lunar landings of the Apollo program, driven by competition with the former Soviet Union. U.S. officials have more recently focused on China, a formidable technological rival that has made steady progress in its own moon program in recent years with a string of robotic lunar landings and a 2030 goal to put its own crew on the surface. NASA astronaut Christina Koch, Artemis II mission specialist, on Sunday said the moon is a "witness plate" to the solar system's formation, and a stepping stone to Mars, "where we might have the most likelihood of finding evidence of past life." "Many, many countries have recognized the value that there is in exploring further into the solar system, to the moon and on to Mars," she told reporters. "They recognize that not only can we gain all these extremely tangible benefits, but that we have the opportunity to answer the question that could be the question of our lifetime, which is, are we alone?" "Answering that question starts at the moon," she said. "The question is not should we go, but should we lead, or should we follow?" Through a series of increasingly advanced Artemis missions extending into the next decade, the U.S. aims to set precedent for how others will operate and coexist on the moon's surface, where someday countries and companies can exploit rocky lunar resources and practice for much more difficult missions to Mars. The other crew members are NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman, and Jeremy Hansen, who will be the first Canadian astronaut to reach the lunar vicinity. Hansen's participation was part of a 2020 agreement between NASA and the Canadian Space Agency. "It was the result of decades of contribution and strategic investment on our part that led to this participation," said Mathieu Caron, head of CSA's astronaut office, citing Canadian robotics contributions on the International Space Station. COMMERCIAL LUNAR MARKET NASA is relying on an array of companies in its moon program, hoping to stimulate a commercial lunar market in the future, the value of which is hard to estimate, analysts say. Boeing and Northrop Grumman lead SLS and Lockheed Martin builds Orion for NASA. SpaceX and Blue Origin are developing their own landers with NASA funding, but under contracts that allow them to offer the spacecraft to other customers. A January PricewaterhouseCoopers report estimates $127 billion in revenues by 2050 from lunar surface activities, with investments potentially reaching $72 billion to $88 billion through the same period. For now, and in the near future, governments will drive companies' lunar strategies and revenue. It will be a long time before key infrastructure, such as energy and communications systems, develop to the point where commercial growth exists on the moon independently of government funding, said Akhil Rao, an economist at analysis firm Rational Futures who was a research economist at NASA. Rao, who was among the group of NASA economists and space policy staff laid off last year during the Trump administration's sweeping federal workforce cuts, said he does "not see a short-run economic value that companies would be able to derive that would allow NASA to be hands-off." The Artemis II mission will pose a greater test of NASA's Orion capsule and SLS, which conducted a similar uncrewed mission in 2022. The astronauts on board will test critical life-support systems, crew interfaces, navigation and communications. Liftoff is scheduled for April 1, though it could happen any day after until April 6, depending on weather conditions in Florida and any last-minute snags with the rocket. Thereafter, another launch window, determined largely by orbital mechanics between Earth and the moon, opens on April 30. Artemis III, planned for 2027, will involve the Orion capsule docking in Earth's orbit with NASA's two lunar landers - the Blue Moon system from Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Starship from Elon Musk's SpaceX. The delicate tag-up will demonstrate how the landers will pick up astronauts before heading for the moon's surface. That mission was added to the program in February by NASA's new administrator, Jared Isaacman, a billionaire private astronaut who has more broadly shaken up the program with new objectives. His decision pushed the program's first crewed lunar landing to Artemis IV.

Read More...

Scott Jennings provides a behind the scenes interview with NASA, as it prepares for tonight's launch.

Read More...

For the first time since 1972, NASA is sending astronauts to the moon again.

Read More...