Micah Maidenberg

So that's a lot in the bag already for NASA.

There have been a number of glitches along the way, a small propellant leak in Orion's propulsion system, but it's been relatively smooth so far.

Both NASA leaders and the crew themselves have described Artemis II repeatedly as a stepping stone to bigger and better things.

In 2027, the agency and a couple of its contractors want to test out how Orion docks with lunar lander vehicles in low Earth orbit.

That's supposed to help everybody get prepared for lunar landing of a crew in 2028.

Now, a lot of people I talk to don't believe that it's possible, but that's the goal.

And that's what industry and the agency are currently driving for.

Thanks for having me.

This is a big deal.

This is a high stakes mission for the agency, for the contractors, and most of all for the crew that's going to be on board Orion.

Neither the rocket or Orion have ever carried humans on board.

So it's a

A big moment and a lot of firsts.

This is the effort where the agency is hoping to one day send astronauts back to the surface of the moon and then press on to sort of bigger goals with exploration.

Human landings on the moon in 2028.

A moon base, Mars someday.

But it all kind of starts with Artemis II.

SpaceX industrialized the landscape, so to speak, built this enormous factory, added other production sites, and added testing facilities for really powerful rockets. And that's upset a lot of people. There are folks that are really... frustrated with beach closures. There are folks that claim SpaceX is not a good steward of the local environment. SpaceX pushes back on that idea very strongly.

SpaceX industrialized the landscape, so to speak, built this enormous factory, added other production sites, and added testing facilities for really powerful rockets. And that's upset a lot of people. There are folks that are really... frustrated with beach closures. There are folks that claim SpaceX is not a good steward of the local environment. SpaceX pushes back on that idea very strongly.

And then there are a lot of people in Cameron County who are working at SpaceX and who have businesses that are tied to Starbase. And those economic opportunities have generated a lot of support from a lot of people in the region, in the county, and among elected officials. Starbase more broadly is part of the Rio Grande Valley, which historically has been among the poorest in the country.