NASA: We’re going back to the moon, and beyond
Things will start moving fast once we get these early missions completed.
Our nation is on the verge of launching NASA astronauts to the International Space Station on a commercial American rocket and spacecraft — a historic mission. NASA is in this position today because of our early investments in an emerging space economy in low-Earth orbit, which started with innovative public/private partnerships for cargo resupply services and has grown to include commercial crew.
Simultaneously, NASA has a bold plan to quickly and sustainably explore more of the moon than ever before under the Artemis program. Even as we shift focus to the moon, NASA remains committed to supporting a space economy in low-Earth orbit for research, crew training and more. As a government agency, NASA must lead in exploration for scientific discovery and go where there is not yet a commercial market. With the right architecture, we will foster a new lunar economy, too.
The scientific community has a huge appetite to study the moon. We will do so with robots and humans throughout this decade and inspire generations to come. Sustainable lunar exploration requires more than NASA, though; we also need commercial and international partners. And industry needs other customers.