NASA announced today they are targeting April 1 at 6:24 pm Eastern Daylight Time for sending the Artemis II crew around the Moon. In preparation, their Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft will roll back out to the launch pad from the Vehicle Assembly Building on March 19. The launch date is somewhat tentative pending close-out of a few remaining tasks in the VAB, but following a Flight Readiness Review officials sounded confident. Artemis II will not land on the Moon, but the four crew members will be the first humans to reach that distance since the Apollo era.

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NASA’s Office of Inspector General’s new report on development of Human Landing Systems for the Artemis program gives NASA credit for its contractual approach, but raises concerns about critical elements that could affect crew safety. Among them are that NASA is not adhering to “test like you fly” principles for the uncrewed demonstration flights or ensuring SpaceX’s Starship will meet the manual control requirement.

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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of March 8-14, 2026 and any insight we can offer about them. The Senate is in session this week. The House is in recess except for pro forma sessions.

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Retired Air Force Colonel Matt Anderson breezed through his nomination hearing today to be Deputy Administrator of NASA. One day after the Senate Commerce Committee approved a new NASA authorization bill that closely aligns with Administrator Jared Isaacman’s revised plan for the Artemis program, no committee members expressed reservations about Anderson joining the NASA team. The committee will vote on sending the nomination forward to the Senate next week. [Update: the committee approved the nomination on March 12.]

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The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee approved a new NASA authorization bill today. Among its many provisions, the bill supports recent changes to the Artemis program, directs NASA to build a Moon base, extends operations of the International Space Station until 2032 while requiring NASA to move forward with commercial space stations to replace it, and strongly supports NASA’s science, technology, and aeronautics programs.

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Four weeks after announcing that he wants to restore NASA’s core competencies, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said today that includes recruiting “technical talent” from industry to join the agency for roughly 2-year terms. NASA and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) are working together to bring this “NASA Force” idea to fruition.

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Russia has completed repairs to Site 31, the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome used for sending crews and cargo to the International Space Station. A structure that supports the launch platform collapsed immediately following the launch of the most recent Soyuz crew in November. Despite what appeared to be significant damage, Roscosmos successfully worked to get it ready for the next Progress cargo mission scheduled to launch on March 22.

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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of March 1-7, 2026 and any insight we can offer about them. The Senate is in session this week. The House is in session Tuesday-Thursday.

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NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman revealed a reconfigured plan for the Artemis program today that increases the cadence of launches and adds an earth-orbit test flight before a lunar surface return. Calling it a “course correction,” officials said the previous plan was not a path to success. The goal of landing on the Moon in 2028 while President Trump is in office remains and NASA is even preserving the possibility of two landings that year.

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As NASA prepares to launch the Artemis II crew around the Moon in the very near future, the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) is raising warning flags about the next flight in the queue, Artemis III. That’s the mission designed to land astronauts on the surface of the Moon for the first time since 1972, but ASAP warns the current plan is too risky. NASA will hold a press conference tomorrow morning, February 27, to discuss “Next Steps for the Artemis Campaign” that presumably will focus not only on the upcoming launch of Artemis II, but ASAP’s report as well.

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