Artemis II and the new space race

On Monday, the crew of NASA’s Artemis II mission will surpass the record for the farthest distance traveled from Earth by humans.

As the space capsule loops around the moon in the “lunar sphere of influence,” the four astronauts will have the ability to make observations never before seen by human eyes. 

The crew is the first to leave Earth’s orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972, and NASA’s ramp up of its space program is just getting started. By 2028, the agency in partnership with either SpaceX or Blue Origin, wants to return humans to the lunar surface and gradually build a permanent moon base with landings every six months. “This time the goal is not flags and footprints,” NASA administrator Jared Isaacman said recently. “This time the goal is to stay…America will never give up the moon.”

Meanwhile, China is chasing a similar goal and plans to be on the moon by 2030. So, today on Studio 2 we’re unpacking the new space race. At a cost of billions of dollars and a decades long timeline, what’s at stake and is the American public onboard?

Guests:

— Christian Davenport, CBS space correspondent and author of Rocket Dreams: Musk, Bezos, and the Inside Story of the New, Trillion-Dollar Space Race

— Scott Solomon, professor of evolutionary biology at Rice University and the author of Becoming Martian: How Living in Space Will Change our Bodies and Minds