Gina

I'm Regina Barber, and you're listening to Shortwave, the science podcast from NPR.

OK, now, so can you explain what these astronauts will be doing once they're in space?

Because it's not a sure thing that they're going to the moon, right?

Right.

Oh, like detaching and coming back in.

Oh.

So when will they decide whether or not to head out to the moon?

Wow.

Okay.

So if they do that, if they make that figure eight, how close are they actually going to get to the moon?

Still, this mission is a huge deal, right?

Because NASA has been talking about sending humans back to the moon for what feels like forever.

So how long after this test mission could we see like a moon landing?

Yeah.

So I feel like that is optimistic.

But what's NASA's plan after this like landing on the moon?

OK, so then how much will the whole thing cost?

OK, so now I think it's worth mentioning that, like back in the 1960s, when, you know, humans did land on the moon, NASA kind of stopped after that.

And they did so for many reasons, including that we had the civil rights movement being halted by assassinations.

There was like more political upheaval from former President Nixon's corruption in Watergate.