On The Space Show for Wednesday, 24 September 2025:

Artemis II crewed lunar orbital mission confirmed by NASA is set for 2026

The announcement that while the target launch date for Artemis II remains April 2025, NASA will attempt to move that forward to February 2025, without compromising crew safety or mission success.

Four astronauts (Reid Wiseman, Commander; Victor Glover, Pilot; and Mission Specialists, Christina Koch & Jeremy Hansen) will venture around the Moon on Artemis II, the first crewed mission on NASA's path to establishing a long-term presence at the Moon for science and exploration through the Artemis program. The 10-day flight will help confirm systems and hardware needed for early human lunar exploration missions.

The mission builds on the success of the uncrewed Artemis I mission in 2022, and will demonstrate a broad range of capabilities needed on deep space missions. The Artemis II test flight will be NASA’s first mission with crew atop the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and inside the Orion spacecraft.

(Audio inserts courtesy NASA)

Space Weather Trio

To be launched this evening at 21:30 AEST, details of the Curruthers, IMAP and the SWFO-L1 spacecraft, which will orbit Lagrange Point 1.

(Audio inserts courtesy of the Goddard Space Flight Center, Maryland)

Life on Mars?

The Perseverance rover has found evidence for traces of past life at Jezero crater on Mars, drawing attention to whether, and how, the rock samples collected by Perseverance will be returned to Earth for further analysis.

(Audio inserts courtesy of NASA)

Planet Earth — Season 6 | Episode 70

Some Queensland projects to use space technology to address environmental issues.