{"id":867407,"date":"2026-04-02T16:00:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T16:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/867407\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T16:00:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T16:00:15","slug":"artemis-ii-astronauts-in-awe-of-earth-as-they-prepare-for-next-phase-of-moon-mission-watch-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/867407\/","title":{"rendered":"Artemis II: Astronauts in awe of Earth as they prepare for next phase of Moon mission – watch live"},"content":{"rendered":"

Can Nasa really pull off a Moon landing by 2028?published at 14:26 BST<\/p>\n

14:26 BST<\/p>\n

\"\"Pallab Ghosh<\/strong>
Science correspondent, in Florida<\/p>\n

That is the official line, but many experts believe that to
\nbe optimistic.<\/p>\n

The plan for the Moon landing is elaborate. First, the SLS
\nmega rocket launches an Orion capsule into lunar orbit.<\/p>\n

Waiting there is a second, commercially built spacecraft
\nthat acts as a lunar lander. Two astronauts climb aboard, ride it down to the
\nsurface for several days of exploration, then blast back up to rejoin Orion for
\nthe journey home.<\/p>\n

It is being done in this complicated way because the US
\nCongress has effectively locked Nasa into flying SLS and Orion, pushing the
\nagency towards buying the lander from private firms rather than building a
\nsingle all-in-one spacecraft, like Apollo.<\/p>\n

SpaceX\u2019s Starship, owned by Elon Musk, is first in
\nline for that job, with Blue Origin – owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos – developing
\na rival lander later in the decade.<\/p>\n

But Starship still has to prove it can reach orbit, refuel
\nin space and dock reliably – all before Nasa will risk a crew.<\/p>\n

Looming large over all this is the prospect of China
\nattempting its own crewed landing around 2030. <\/p>\n

If Artemis keeps slipping, Washington risks watching Beijing
\nplant the next flag on the Moon, and that is a race US politicians are very
\nreluctant to lose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Can Nasa really pull off a Moon landing by 2028?published at 14:26 BST 14:26 BST Pallab GhoshScience correspondent,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":867408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3844],"tags":[70,413,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-867407","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-space","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116335950384761392","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=867407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/867408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}