While Artemis II won’t land, its successor, Artemis III, is expected to launch and land on the surface of the moon mid-2027. NASA awarded SpaceX a $2.9 billion contract to build the vehicle that will carry astronauts to the moon.

What everyone agrees on is that NASA needs a new spacecraft capable of relaying communications from Mars to Earth. This issue has become especially acute with the recent loss of NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft. NASA’s best communications relay remains the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has now been there for 20 years.

NASA has launched the Mars to Table Challenge, seeking Earth-independent food systems capable of sustaining astronauts on long-duration Moon and Mars missions.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The biggest, most sophisticated Mars rover ever built is on its way to the red planet. NASA's Perseverance blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, atop an Atlas V rocket Thursday morning. It's the first step in an ambitious ...

Embarking from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the 11 million-pound (5 million kilograms) stack will be transported at a speed of about 1 mph (1.6 km/h along a 4-mile (6.4 kilometers) route — a journey that will take up to 12 hours and be streamed live on NASA's Youtube channel.