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Are We Over the Moon?

January 4, 2026·33 min·3 clips
Why does no one care about NASA's new moon mission when Walter Cronkite once narrated rocket launches live on TV?
Journalist Joel Achenbach discusses NASA's Artemis mission to return Americans to the moon, exploring why public awareness has faded since the Apollo era, the technical and political hurdles—including competition with China and reliance on private companies like SpaceX—and the broader goal of using the moon as a proving ground for future Mars missions.

As heard by us

Artemis is a moon story that becomes a question of timing, power, and control.

Joel Achenbach's uncertainty about Artemis gives the conversation its center of gravity. It treats a moon mission that still feels hazy to smart people as something more concrete than a slogan: a push to put Americans back on the moon before China does, and, later, a step toward…

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Why you'd press play

You want the moon race explained before the jargon starts piling up.

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