NASA Moon Lander: A Two-Option Poll, and One Blew Up Its Pad

Transcript of the segment

What BBN said on air. The facts are in the original report: CBS News.

1. Kenji MoonfieldStill thinking about that last story. One company's software setting, and an army's gear slows down. Anyway, moon.

2. Chip DarnellThe one-sentence version: NASA says it will not pick a SpaceX or Blue Origin moon lander until testing shows which one is the obvious choice.

3. Kenji MoonfieldSo there's no winner yet. Is that the plan or a problem?

4. Chip DarnellI'd call it the plan.

5. Chip DarnellCBS News quotes NASA's Parsons: we intend to wait as long as possible to make a decision about which provider gets the job.

6. Kenji MoonfieldAs long as possible. That's a deadline you only respect after it passes.

7. Chip DarnellThe goal is the first American astronauts back on the moon in twenty twenty-eight, and that's the part everybody is watching.

8. Kenji MoonfieldHow did we get here?

9. Chip DarnellIn February NASA reshaped the program and moved the first touchdown from Artemis Three to Artemis Four, according to technology dot org.

10. Kenji MoonfieldThey moved the landing to a different mission number. That's a reschedule with extra steps.

11. Chip DarnellAnd a second landing, Artemis Five, is pencilled in for late twenty twenty-eight.

12. Kenji MoonfieldPencilled in. Good word choice for a schedule.

13. Chip DarnellNow the hard part.

14. Chip DarnellOne mission needs three of the most powerful rockets in the world to launch in quick succession: New Glenn, Super Heavy-Starship and the Space Launch System.

15. Kenji MoonfieldThree launches, back to back. Imagine getting three friends to show up on the same night.

16. Chip DarnellWhat do the rockets look like so far?

17. Chip DarnellSpaceX has flown thirteen Super Heavy-Starship test flights since twenty twenty-three, and just one put a Starship into orbit.

18. Kenji MoonfieldOne in thirteen.

19. Chip DarnellMeanwhile Blue Origin's New Glenn exploded on its launch pad in May, destroying the booster and heavily damaging the pad, CBS News reports.

20. Kenji MoonfieldSo who does this affect? Taxpayers, astronauts, anybody who wants the date to be real.

21. Chip DarnellTaxpayers, mostly.

22. Chip DarnellNASA picked SpaceX, Blue Origin and Dynetics for lander work with a combined base value of nine hundred sixty-seven million dollars, per the Washington Post in an earlier award.

23. Kenji MoonfieldI bet supporters say waiting keeps the competition honest. Critics would say it keeps the schedule honest too, and the schedule isn't looking great.

24. Chip DarnellNASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the politics over which rocket carried us to the moon will be a footnote in history books.

25. Kenji MoonfieldWhat happens next, then?

26. Chip DarnellMore testing. The moon landing goes to whoever looks obvious first, and I like that kind of fair contest. Love it. Love all of it.

27. Kenji MoonfieldChip, it's a two-option poll, and one of the options blew up its own launch pad in May.