TechCrunch Space: A new world

Hello, and welcome back to TechCrunch Space! Much to the surprise of none, NASA announced that the next mission of Artemis has been delayed until April 2026, and the next mission of Artemis III has been delayed until mid-2027. It will be interesting to see how Artemis evolves under the leadership of Jared Isaacman – more on that below…

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I’ll admit that I was surprised this week when I heard that President Donald Trump was nominating entrepreneur and astrologer Jared Isaacman to be NASA administrator. The NASA administrator oversees a $25 billion budget and more than 18,000 employees — as well as leading major scientific initiatives that help us understand climate change, the sun, and more.

I was intrigued and trying to understand how Isaacman – who is not a politician, and has never held public office – could lead the space agency at what could be the most important time in NASA’s history.

Many people are wondering what is going on with SpinLaunch, a startup that is developing an alternative way to put satellites and other payloads into orbit. I couldn’t get to the bottom of it, but I learned something interesting: While SpinLaunch recently closed $11 million in new funding (after raising a $71 million Series B in 2022), they are counting on much, much higher funding. earlier this year.

It’s fitting that we talked a lot about the future of the Artemis program this week, because in this week’s episode of space history, we’re looking back at Apollo 17 – aka. the last time humans walked on the moon. The mission, which took place from December 7-19, 1972, was the last lunar landing under NASA’s Apollo program. Click the link above to learn more about the mission.