Welcome to a special edition of the Science Times newsletter. Usually we send you links to science stories on Tuesdays, but today is a big day, with the expected launch this evening of Artemis II, the NASA mission that will carry astronauts around the moon for the first time since 1972. You may get a few more special editions over the next 10 days of the mission. I’ve been working with more than a dozen Times journalists for months, preparing for this moment. We’ve endured a government shutdown and canceled launch attempts. Now, we’re publishing a package of articles about the astronauts, President Trump’s goals for space and how Americans feel about the mission. Kenneth Chang, who has been covering space for The Times since 2000, is down at Kennedy Space Center in Florida to witness the launch. Another space reporter, Katrina Miller, will be following the post-launch action from mission control at Johnson Space Center in Houston. Click here to follow our live updates today and tomorrow and to see the full breadth of our Artemis coverage. Friends, family and readers often ask: NASA already sent men to the moon a half-century ago. Why are we doing this again? These astronauts aren’t even going to land on the moon, so why bother? When Timothy Bella, a contributor to Science Times, spoke to the astronauts about this, they had a variety of interesting answers. But one of them really stuck with me. Victor Glover, the mission’s pilot, talked about the political conflict and division that was racking America in the lead-up to NASA’s Apollo 8 mission in 1968. Space exploration has always seemed to be something that united people. With similar divisions in the country today, he said that he hoped Artemis II would “create a touch point for our generation that’s equal to, or maybe there’s a path to be even greater than, because it’s current and it’s ours.” “It’s ours.” Those words spoke to me as a person born too late for Apollo. My memories of spaceflight start with the Challenger space shuttle tragedy in 1986 and work up to the triumph of NASA’s Cassini mission to Saturn. I vividly recall my dad once driving us to a park on Chicago’s North Side late on a school night to watch a different space shuttle pass overhead. But like some 70 percent of Americans born after 1972, I’ve never experienced people being sent to the moon. President Trump and the current NASA administrator, Jared Isaacman, have pledged that we’re going to the moon to stay. So this moment may just be the start of something very exciting. Meet the Astronauts
Reid Wiseman, CommanderHometown: Baltimore Age: 50 Astronaut since: 2009 Quote: “I hope we have a great impact on bringing the world together, even just for a minute. We don’t need any stunts. We don’t need any magic tricks.”
Victor Glover, PilotHometown: Pomona, Calif. Age: 49 Astronaut since: 2013 Quote: “We understand why so many people focus on our names, why our pictures hang all over the center, but that we — we are happy for humanity sending people to the moon, even though a lot of humanity is happy for the four of us going to the moon. And that little nuance, like it’s not about us. We try very hard to make it not about us.”
Christina Koch, Mission SpecialistHometown: Grand Rapids, Mich., and Jacksonville, N.C. Age: 47 Astronaut since: 2013 Quote: “There are things about our universe we can only learn if we go to certain places. Only those places can tell us those things about the universe. I always say to people: Do what scares you. And that means I have to follow my own advice.”
Jeremy Hansen, Mission SpecialistHometown: London, Ontario Age: 50 Astronaut since: 2009 Quote: “I do hope that the globe will pause when there are humans who have left the planet and are on the far side of the moon. I hope that we all pause during that time frame. I think that would be good for us as a human race." ONE NUMBER
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Tonight’s launch is scheduled for 6:24 p.m. Eastern time. But NASA is already livestreaming the countdown on nearly every digital media service you can imagine. You can watch it live on NASA’s YouTube channel, its NASA+ streaming service on both its website and on smart TVs, as well as its X account.
That video stream can also be watched here on The Times’s website, where our expert journalists in Florida, Houston and New York are providing updates, commentary and context about the mission.
Which Artemis II astronaut’s call sign is “IKE?” (It stands for “I Know Everything.”)
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