![\"Close-up](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ep3-horizontal-hero-16-9.png\")
<\/p>\n
[MUSIC: \u201cSupercluster\u201d by Sergey Azbel]<\/p>\n
JACOB PINTER: You\u2019re listening to NASA\u2019s Curious Universe. I\u2019m Jacob Pinter.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
PADI BOYD: And I\u2019m Padi Boyd. NASA is leading a golden age of space exploration. The Artemis II mission will send humans around the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years. It sets the stage for future Artemis missions, when astronauts return to the Moon\u2019s surface. And Artemis will build upon the foundation we\u2019ve laid and prepare us for the first human journey to Mars.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
JACOB: In this limited series, you\u2019re along for the ride of Artemis II. You\u2019ll meet the astronauts flying around the Moon and go behind the scenes with NASA engineers and scientists powering this mission.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
PADI: This is episode three of our Artemis II series. In this episode: NASA\u2019s new ride to the Moon. We\u2019ll get a tour of the spaceship returning astronauts to deep space. And we\u2019ll hear from one of the architects of the Space Launch System, the most powerful rocket NASA has ever built.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
NASA\u2019s next-generation spaceship is called Orion. It\u2019s part of NASA\u2019s system to send astronauts on journeys of exploration to the Moon. During the Artemis I mission in 2022, Orion flew around the Moon without humans onboard. Now it\u2019s time to send astronauts.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Four](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ep-3-orion-and-sls-ksc-20230808-ph-kls02-0086orig.jpg\")
The four astronauts of Artemis II and Integrity. At the time this photo was taken in Aug. 2023, the Orion crew module was undergoing acoustic testing at Kennedy Space Center ahead of integration with the European Service Module.<\/p>\n
VICTOR GLOVER: The Orion spacecraft is humanity\u2019s first lunar capable spacecraft in a very long time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
[MUSIC: \u201cCity Builders\u201d by Laurent Levesque]<\/p>\n
PADI: That\u2019s Victor Glover, the pilot for Artemis II. Along with Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen Victor is part of the crew that will fly Orion for the very first time. Here\u2019s Christina.\u00a0<\/p>\n
CHRISTINA KOCH: The Artemis II mission at its heart is a test mission of the Orion space capsule. This is going to be the first time that humans have ridden inside that capsule and that everything on board keeps us alive. We\u2019ll do different things to test out the vehicle for a few days. We\u2019ll come very close to the moon, go around it, and spend a few days coming home to Earth.\u00a0<\/p>\n
PADI: Throughout the mission, Orion has to protect the astronauts from some extreme conditions. In deep space, it provides air pressure and oxygen that humans need to survive. To return home, the spacecraft pierces Earth\u2019s atmosphere at about 25,000 miles an hour, or 40,000 kilometers an hour. Orion\u2019s heat shield will reach temperatures of 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. That\u2019s getting close to the temperature of the Sun! But inside the capsule, it will be right around room temperature. According to Reid Wiseman, you can feel how sturdy Orion is.\u00a0<\/p>\n
REID WISEMAN: When you get inside this spacecraft, you start to realize the depth of thought that has gone into everything. I once joked that every lesson that has ever been learned in human spaceflight has been rolled into Orion. Every cable is a little bit thicker than it needs to be. Every computer has more redundancy than it needs to. But at the end of the day, that\u2019s what you want when you\u2019re flying into deep space, when you\u2019re leaving the comfort of planet Earth and you\u2019re heading out to the Moon and on to Mars. You need those redundant and reliable systems.\u00a0<\/p>\n
PADI: The amount of space inside Orion\u2019s crew module\u2014that is, the part where the astronauts actually stay\u2014is along the lines of two minivans. So during their 10 days in space, these four astronauts are going to spend some quality time together. And it\u2019s not just that they need protection from the elements. Orion also has to provide a place to sleep, to eat, and, of course, to use the bathroom.\u00a0<\/p>\n
CHRISTINA: Basically Orion is kind of like our RV, you could say, on these deep space missions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
PADI: The Artemis II astronauts have a unique relationship with Orion, and they also have a unique privilege. <\/p>\n
[MUSIC: \u201cOrion Rises\u201d by JC Lemay]<\/p>\n
As the first crew to fly this spaceship, they get to name it. The crew chose Integrity. It\u2019s a core value shared by NASA, the astronaut office, and the Canadian Space Agency. Reid says, at first, Integrity was actually not even on the list. But as the astronauts ran through their options over and over, Integrity appeared and then rose to the top.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
REID: And then we started to look through our own core values as a crew, because we spent a lot of time and intentionality on that. And we have a little saying in the crew that you we could either be \u201cin integrity\u201d or \u201cout of integrity\u201d. We use it all the time. If you show up to class prepared and early and ready to go, you\u2019re in integrity. If you show up five minutes late because you had to go grab a coffee or you didn\u2019t plan properly, you\u2019re out of integrity. So we give each other a lot of grace. You know, you\u2019re not always perfect and you\u2019re not always wrong, so you can come in and out of this mindset.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/orion-orange-suits-ksc-20250731-ph-rns01-0008orig-1.jpg\")
The Artemis II astronauts don their Orion Crew Survival System Suits for a multi-day crew module training beginning Thursday, July 31, 2025 at the agency\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Behind the crew, wearing clean room apparel, are members of the Artemis II closeout crew. Testing included a suited crew test and crew equipment interface test, performing launch day and simulated orbital activities inside the Orion spacecraft. This series of tests marks the first time the crew entered their spacecraft that will take them around the Moon and back to Earth while wearing their spacesuits.<\/p>\n
JACOB: Integrity is also an important quality for a spaceship. Orion must maintain integrity to survive the brutal environment of space and to return the astronauts safely. Every single detail is critical. That\u2019s why it has taken the work of many people to get Orion to the launch pad and years of development and testing.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
I spent some time talking to one of those people: Branelle Rodriguez. She\u2019s the Orion vehicle manager for Artemis II. Orion draws on lessons learned from basically every NASA mission, especially the International Space Station. After all, humans have been living on the space station continuously for more than 25 years. And that\u2019s where Branelle got started too. She worked her way up as a NASA engineer, starting with equipment used on the space station.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
BRANELLE RODRIGUEZ: And I got to work on space flight hardware. Specifically, I got to design life support systems. And I always used to tease, it was always your bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen. You know, the essential things that make us all tick.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
JACOB: I was, you know, just getting ready for this, and I was doing some research, and I found some papers you wrote in the past, or like, maybe abstracts for papers you presented at a conference or something. But some of the topics that I found were making a better fire extinguisher on the International Space Station and the Urine Monitoring System on the International Space Station. I mean, how do you describe that part of your background?\u00a0<\/p>\n
BRANELLE: Yeah, those are my two babies. Those are great ones. Actually, just had an opportunity to talk to my daughter\u2019s fifth grade class, and it was a very basic question of, \u201cWhat do engineers do?\u201d And I had, you know, 50 different kids yelling things at me. But the root of it is, is we just problem solve. And we problem solve using math and science, right? And it was a fun thing to kind of talk about, like whether that problem solving is figuring out how to launch and trajectories of a spacecraft, or if it\u2019s as simple as, Hey, we have to put out a fire in microgravity and I don\u2019t have gravity. How would we do it? Emergency response is very critical, right? You always design and build stuff, especially for spaceflight\u2014we rule out the capability of ever getting into that scenario. That being said, what\u2019s the what if? What if we do get into that scenario because we didn\u2019t think of something and we failed to imagine a failure going here, what would we do? We want to arm the crew with any means necessary. And so the fire extinguisher was a super cool project, because not only did you have to understand how fire would react in zero-G, but then you had to understand how your fire extinguisher would basically be expelled, and where all those now mixed up contaminants and things like that would go, and how are we going to effectively fight these fires?\u00a0<\/p>\n
JACOB: Did that fire extinguisher that you worked on, did it end up on the ISS?\u00a0<\/p>\n
BRANELLE: It sure did! And it\u2019s my one piece of hardware that I hope never gets used.\u00a0<\/p>\n
[MUSIC: \u201cEarly Symptom\u201d by Pierre Terrasse and Nicolas Subrechicot]<\/p>\n
JACOB: So I am wondering if you can give me a tour of Orion. And I\u2019m almost imagining like this is the Orion episode of MTV Cribs, and we show up at the front door together, such as it is. What do we see first?\u00a0<\/p>\n
BRANELLE: Well, the first thing you\u2019re going to see if you\u2019re on the ground, you\u2019re going to see two spectacular doorways as we enter into Orion. No, so we do have two hatches that\u2014so when the astronauts kind of enter into the vehicle, there\u2019s actually two hatches. The first hatch is what\u2019s called our Launch Abort System, the big tip-top point of the rocket that is only there for the first part of spaceflight. And hopefully we never have to utilize it. And then we\u2019ll jettison it. But then you\u2019ll go into the crew module side hatch, and when you enter into Orion, you\u2019ll step down. And the first thing you\u2019ll step down in 1 g is your hygiene bay. So right below where you step down from Orion is actually the bathroom. Don\u2019t worry, you don\u2019t step into the bathroom. There is a door. We do respect privacy, but that\u2019s actually where that\u2019s at. And when you\u2019re stepping into it, you actually step over what we call our flywheel or it\u2019s our exercise device. Think of it kind of like a rowing machine. And so you\u2019ll step over that, step over there, and we have four seats in Orion. You have your commander, your pilot, and they\u2019re going to be up underneath the displays. And so when I walk in, those are on my left-hand side. And then the mission specialists, which would be Christina and Jeremy, they\u2019re going to be on our right-hand side, kind of sitting below, so to speak, our commander and our pilot, which is Reid and Victor. And so you\u2019ll kind of go in and get buckled up, and when you\u2019re on your backs now ready for launch, you have your displays in your controls that are right overhead. So Victor and Reid get to take a look at those as they launch. But then there\u2019s going to be four beautiful windows that they also get to look out of and see, you know, Earth and the Moon from their viewpoints. And then, honestly, kind of around is the uniqueness of space, right? We can use every wall\u2014little nooks and crannies that we can to kind of put things.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Interior](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/orion-inside-ksc-20240223-ph-rns01-0002orig.jpg\")
A view inside Orion from Feb. 1, 2024, as technicians finalized the crew cabin\u2019s interior and installed backshell panels and insulation on the spacecraft\u2019s exterior that will protect Orion and the astronauts inside from the harsh environments they will encounter on their mission.\u2063<\/p>\n
JACOB: I\u2019ve heard the astronauts say that in terms of the amount of space that they have inside Orion, it\u2019s on par with a minivan, maybe. So it\u2019s not a huge amount of space. But it sounds like it\u2019s sort of segmented. Like, this is the place where you go to the bathroom. This is the place where you fly the spacecraft. This is the place where you can exercise.\u00a0<\/p>\n
BRANELLE: Yeah, absolutely. And if you\u2019ve seen anything about minivans, man, they design those so that there\u2019s all sorts of ways you can take advantage of that space and maximize it to its fullest, and that\u2019s kind of what we\u2019ve done with Orion as well. We are people, you know. Our astronauts are people, right? So having any type of an opportunity for them to have that personal space, whether it is just to go use the restroom or it is, \u201cHey, this is my little corner of my nook\u201d, right, where I\u2019m going to keep my things is really critical for everybody. Just like you are in a minivan, right? This is my seat. I have my situation right here. I got my bags. I know what I want. I know where my book\u2019s at, that sort of thing too.\u00a0<\/p>\n
JACOB: This is always a point of interest, so I\u2019m just going to go for it. How do you use the bathroom in Orion, in space?\u00a0<\/p>\n
BRANELLE: (Laughs) Very carefully. You know, spaceflight and going to the bathroom is probably one of my favorite conversations, I\u2019ll be honest. And it\u2019s a great one to have actually with kids, because you\u2019d be surprised at how brilliant their answers are. So the toilet that we actually have on Orion is modeled and designed after one of the toilets that we have on the space station today. When you get in there, first and foremost, you\u2019re going to find yourself to make sure you get in a good configuration where you\u2019re\u2014you know, there\u2019s handrails, there\u2019s tethers, there\u2019s things to secure you, right? Because you\u2019re in microgravity, so you\u2019re constantly moving around and floating. For liquid wastes\u2014the liquid waste will actually be vented out of the spacecraft, very similar to how Apollo also did it. And solid wastes are actually stored into a container. We call it a fecal collection container, and we utilize filters like carbon filters and things to help with odors and whatnot.\u00a0<\/p>\n
JACOB: Can you say more about how Orion draws on the 25 years of research that we have from the International Space Station? I mean, are there, like, specific lines you can draw where you say, Oh, yeah, that system, we really learned how to do that on the space station? Or that piece of technology or equipment or whatever it is.\u00a0<\/p>\n
BRANELLE: Our life support system is one of them. The water dispenser that we have is based off the water dispenser that we have on space station as well, kind of different versions, if you want to call it that, because of the need for and the size and constraints and things in Orion. A lot of what we\u2019ve learned is honestly how the human body reacts and responds as well. And we\u2019ve taken those things into account with, you know, what we need to do for radiation protection, what we need to do to do exercise, and how would we accommodate that from that perspective, let alone all your thermal protection systems and everything else that we\u2019ve learned from shuttle and, you know, the years that that team has to understand how to build those systems has really all flowed into Orion and what Orion can do.<\/p>\n
[MUSIC: \u201cFlight\u201d by Alex Kish]<\/p>\n
JACOB: Tell me about the relationship that your team has with the Artemis II astronauts. I mean, there are a lot of people building Orion and making it as good as it can possibly be, but they\u2019re the ones who have to climb into it at the end of the day, right?\u00a0<\/p>\n
BRANELLE: They absolutely do. The Artemis II crew, they\u2019re phenomenal. I will be the first one and probably not the only one to say that. They have, from the get-go, made an effort to meet as many of the folks that touch this vehicle, that fly this vehicle, that have anything to do with getting this mission off the ground as they can. They have been really integral in all of that, and we appreciate [that] for them, right? Because they bring a perspective and an aspect that is unique to their viewpoint, and we really appreciate that, and that\u2019s what we need.\u00a0<\/p>\n
JACOB: The astronauts chose the name Integrity for their spacecraft. Did you get a vote? Or your team?\u00a0<\/p>\n
BRANELLE: That was all the crew. This crew has really shown how much this is not just them, but it\u2019s everybody, and I think Integrity\u2014that they chose that\u2014really builds upon, you know, not only the patch that really is encompassing to everybody who\u2019s been involved in it and all of humanity, but also what it takes to kind of do what we do some days, right? It takes that integrity to continue pushing and driving and speaking up when you don\u2019t agree. And that\u2019s\u2014it\u2019s pretty cool that they brought forward that way. But no, I did not get a vote.\u00a0<\/p>\n
JACOB: Have you thought ahead to what it will feel like for you personally when Artemis II and Orion and those four astronauts fly away?\u00a0<\/p>\n
BRANELLE: To some extent, yes. You know, I\u2019m kind of an athlete by heart, right? And so with anything, I think, when you talk with folks who do sports or run races or whatever they might do, everyone at some point thinks, look what I could accomplish, right? Look what I could get to. I can get to, you know, running across the finish line or winning the match. You know, sometimes I\u2019ll envision seeing that moment when the crew pops open the hatch, right? And they get on the helo and land on the deck of the ship and smile and wave at the camera, right? Because that\u2019s the moment that I\u2019m waiting for, because I feel like then, then I can breathe. Then I can take a moment to say we\u2019ve gotten the crew back safely, and that\u2019s the success point, right? After that, I\u2019m going to take a very long vacation and probably a nap, but we\u2019ll get to that bridge when we get to it. So there are moments, yeah, absolutely, you got to remind yourself of ultimately what the goal is, and that\u2019s my goal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
JACOB: Orion is going to help deliver humans back to the surface of the Moon and maintain a long-term presence there, and one day we\u2019re going to watch humans leave the first footprints on Mars. Do you ever step back and think about the role that you are playing and making that all happen? And if so, how do you think about all that, or process all that? Just\u2014it\u2019s a lot. It\u2019s big.\u00a0<\/p>\n
BRANELLE: It is a lot. No, that\u2019s a great way to describe it. It is a lot. I\u2019m very lucky. I have two awesome kiddos that keep me grounded, and we\u2019ve had to have a lot of conversations, because my time with them has been very limited, especially in the last several months, and will be in the months leading up to the flight and the mission. And, you know, it\u2019s kind of interesting, because sometimes when you just put it in the [most] basic of terms, it makes the most sense. And so they\u2019ll sit there and be like, Well, Mom, why do you have to do this? Why do you have to go? And you know, it\u2019s like, well, because we\u2019re making history. And history is not easy sometimes. And so when you have kids and you\u2019re reading a book, this mission is going to be part of that, and Artemis is going to be part of that. And that is pretty darn cool when you think about it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"NASA's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/vehicle-during-rollout-ksc-01172026-artemis-ii-rollout-24orig.jpg\")
NASA\u2019s SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft during rollout to the launch pad on Jan. 17, 2026.<\/p>\n
[MUSIC: \u201cRadiate\u201d by Janet Overfield]<\/p>\n
JACOB: Branelle Rodriguez is the Orion vehicle manager for Artemis II.\u00a0Now, Orion is an important part of the trip to the Moon, but it\u2019s not the only part.\u00a0It needs a big rocket to push it off of Earth\u2019s surface and begin the journey to deep space.\u00a0NASA\u2019s new Moon rocket is called SLS, the Space Launch System.\u00a0It\u2019s the most powerful rocket NASA has ever built.\u00a0Fully assembled, SLS stands more than 30 stories tall.\u00a0If you laid it on its side, SLS would be as long as a football field, and it creates more than 8 million pounds of thrust.\u00a0<\/p>\n
PADI: Like Orion, SLS builds on NASA\u2019s experience over time.\u00a0Some parts of the rocket use hardware and designs that were proven during the space shuttle program.\u00a0For example, of the four main engines on SLS for Artemis II, three of the engines flew to space on shuttle missions, and the other one is new, with some hardware that has previously flown.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
JACOB: David Beaman is one of the key figures behind this rocket.\u00a0He\u2019s the acting manager of the Space Launch System. He\u2019s been working on this rocket for over a decade, and before that he was a part of dozens of space shuttle missions.\u00a0Today David is chomping at the bit to head to the Moon.\u00a0<\/p>\n
DAVID BEAMAN: I\u2019ve heard people ask, why do we need to go back to the Moon, right? We\u2019ve already been. The Moon is the same when we went in the 60s. We are not. We\u2019re different today. Just because you\u2019ve been somewhere doesn\u2019t mean you shouldn\u2019t go back and experience more. We don\u2019t do that with vacations, right? You don\u2019t say, \u201cWell, you know, I\u2019m not going to go on vacation this year. I went on vacation last year,\u201d right? No! You don\u2019t look at it like that. You look at it and say, I have an opportunity to experience more, right, know more and do more. And that\u2019s part of the excitement.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
[MUSIC: \u201cNot the End of the World\u201d by Jay Price]<\/p>\n
JACOB: David is actually a second-generation rocket scientist.\u00a0His father, Robert Beaman, worked on the Apollo program that landed the first astronauts on the Moon. Eventually he held the title of chief engineer at NASA\u2019s Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, which is where David is based now.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
David is a senior engineer in his own right.\u00a0He\u2019s part of the Artemis II mission management team.\u00a0The mission management team assesses risk throughout the mission and is responsible to make key decisions like, are we ready to launch?\u00a0In fact, on launch day David will be one of the people asked to provide a final sign-off. To begin, I asked if he could boil down the Space Launch System into a sentence or two.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
DAVID: It\u2019s the rocket that our forefathers dreamed about, right? You know, they had the Apollo program. They had the Saturn V. We have so much more technology today, so it\u2019s really the most energetic, accurately flying rocket that humans have ever thought about, and it\u2019s capable of carrying humans into deep space and protecting them, not only on the journey there but on the journey back.\u00a0<\/p>\n
JACOB: Can you sort of pop the hood for me and explain, you know, how does it do that? What makes SLS tick?\u00a0<\/p>\n
DAVID: OK, yeah, I\u2019d love to. So the first thing is, you have two solid rocket boosters. The solid rocket boosters were built on the pedigree of the space shuttle program. Those two solids provide about 70 percent of the thrust to get it off the launch pad, millions of pounds of thrust, and they burn for a little over two minutes. And the whole purpose of them is to get that initial oomph to get us off of the launch pad and to take us into an area where we have the opportunity to get the upper stage to orbit. At that point, they separate. The whole time you\u2019re relying on the liquid engines as well. So the RS-25s, which are based on the space shuttle program as well, they\u2019re providing a significant amount of thrust on ascent. But then when the solid rocket boosters separate, they provide the next stage capability, and they go all the way through about 500 seconds, about eight minutes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Technicians](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/sls-sunrise-maf-20240711-cs2-mptslift-md-11o-2.jpg\")
Technicians at Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans lift the core stage of NASA\u2019s SLS rocket that will help launch Artemis II.<\/p>\n
[MUSIC: \u201cConscious of Time\u201d by Paul Richard O\u2019Brien]<\/p>\n
JACOB: After those eight minutes\u2014at which point the rocket has already climbed almost a hundred miles above Earth\u2019s surface, traveling almost 23 times the speed of sound\u2014the core stage falls away, leaving an upper stage to propel Orion to the next leg of its journey.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to wrap your head around just how powerful this rocket is, and it\u2019s even harder to imagine being strapped into the spaceship on top of it.\u00a0Each of the engines in the SLS core stage produces about eight times more thrust than an F-15 fighter jet. And the rocket has four of those engines.\u00a0The solid rocket boosters\u2014which are the skinny white tubes on the side\u2014burn so hot that when you test-fire them here on Earth, they turn sand into glass.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
This is a brawny, powerful rocket, but it also has brains.\u00a0The core stage of the rocket has three flight computers with sophisticated software designed specifically for SLS.\u00a0Those computers guide the rocket like an autopilot system.\u00a0In fact, SLS basically flies itself, although humans can take over if something unexpected happens.\u00a0NASA engineers have tested the software repeatedly, verifying all of the code that will control the rocket.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
DAVID: So we will have done literally thousands of simulations in pieces, and then ultimately we do end to end testing dozens and dozens of times with those particular simulations with the software executing things, and then we introduce the human into the loop, and we do simulations of launches. And you have everybody sitting in the place that they would be, and so all of the data is flowing to the launch team like it would be in a standard launch countdown, and then there are problems that are interjected into that data to see how the humans and how the computers deal with it. So you don\u2019t just do simulations with computers. You introduce the human element into it, because ultimately humans are flying on it. If there are things that happen during launch countdown that require us to accept additional risk before we launch, that\u2019s what the mission management team is responsible for.\u00a0<\/p>\n
JACOB: Once Artemis I flew and you had a chance to sort of step back and look at everything, how did SLS perform during that mission?\u00a0<\/p>\n
DAVID: It really performed well. What I can tell you, from a prediction standpoint, our chief engineer, Dr. Blevins, likes to quote that we flew within 0.02 percent of our prediction. Nothing\u2019s going to fly perfect. I can tell you there were things that we learned in Artemis I that\u2019s going to make Artemis II safer. Spaceflight is inherently risky, so what you want to do is learn from everything that you can. You know, one of the most exciting things to me after Artemis I was to come home and talk to my dad. You know, my dad was an engineer\u2014very similar job to what I have\u2014during the Apollo program. And so to be able to come home and share with him the mission and how it performed and listen to him feed back to me things that they did during the Apollo program, you know, that was priceless to me. And so what I tell you is he always taught me that you learn from your mistakes, right? Success never taught me a single thing, right? I learned something when I didn\u2019t do something that wasn\u2019t quite as successful. And we have to be a learning organization, because we already know how risky spaceflight is. You don\u2019t want to take someone\u2019s mom, dad, aunt or uncle, or brother and sister and put them on a spacecraft and fly on hope, right? Hope is not a management technique.\u00a0<\/p>\n
JACOB: When you were growing up with a dad who worked on the Apollo program, I mean, did you always know you wanted to be in the space program? Did you just have NASA stamped across your forehead?\u00a0<\/p>\n
DAVID: I didn\u2019t, and I took a little bit different path, and I worked on some military projects and other things. You know, when you\u2019re a part\u2014when you\u2019re in the middle of something\u2014you don\u2019t always appreciate the significance of it. And yes, you know, I knew my dad, he worked with von Braun and Rudolph and all those guys, and I knew he did something that was pretty meaningful. But it was your life every day, and you really didn\u2019t appreciate how epic what we did back in the sixties was. I\u2019ve just really come to appreciate that, really in the last 10 years, having an opportunity to work on a program to try to go back to the Moon, seeing the challenges that we have and realizing what those guys did back in the sixties. And they didn\u2019t have the tools we have, right? They\u2019re the true giants from spaceflight. They\u2019re the ones that taught us that we could, right?\u00a0<\/p>\n
JACOB: What does your dad think of the Artemis program? And especially, what does he think about your role in it?\u00a0<\/p>\n
DAVID: Well, I lost my dad three days after we landed Artemis I.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
JACOB: Oh, I\u2019m sorry.\u00a0<\/p>\n
DAVID: But, like I said, he was still\u2014I was able to come back after the launch and talk with him about it. He was excited that we were going back to the Moon. He was extremely proud that I was doing something similar to what he did. You know, he was\u2014he\u2019s a hundred times the engineer I ever was. I\u2019m blessed to be in the right place and work with a lot of smart people. He was one of the smart people. And so I would like to think that he\u2019s looking down on me right now, and he continues to be very proud at what I\u2019m doing and how I\u2019m able to continue what he would consider to be a tremendous NASA legacy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
JACOB: Yeah. I have no doubt. Artemis II will put astronauts onto your rocket for the first time. Does that change the way that you and your team get ready for this mission?\u00a0<\/p>\n
DAVID: It does to some extent. So obviously, we wanted to design this rocket from the beginning to be human rated. But it\u2019s just like anything else you do: when it comes down to the point where you\u2019re actually putting another person\u2019s life at risk, yeah, it changes how you look at it. Our job is to protect those people, right? Our number one job is to protect the astronauts. We want to go to space. We want to go to the Moon. We want to execute science. But none of that is worth a life. So it changes how you think about it. It makes you ask yourself questions. When you\u2019re sitting in the mission management room and you\u2019re working an issue, you ask yourself, What if I\u2019m wrong? When you try to solve a problem, it isn\u2019t just, \u201cI think I\u2019m right. I think this is what we should do.\u201d What is the consequence if I\u2019m wrong? And if you don\u2019t really understand the problem, you ought to stand down for that day. Three weeks after the launch, no one is going to care whether you launched on Tuesday or on Friday, right? They care that day. But you need to do what\u2019s right. You need to do what\u2019s right to protect the precious cargo and the astronauts that we have. We go there to do science with humans. We need to make sure those humans are taken care of.\u00a0<\/p>\n
JACOB: I know that there\u2019s still work to do, but have you thought ahead to that moment when, you know, weather is good, everything checks out, it really happens, and Artemis II flies away? I mean, do you know what you\u2019ll be thinking or feeling right then?\u00a0<\/p>\n
DAVID: Yeah, I think about it every day, because decisions we make on a daily basis are much more important than the decisions we make the day we\u2019re sitting in the firing room, right? If we don\u2019t make the right decisions from now till then when we do our flight readiness reviews, that decision that day will not be the decision that causes us to be successful or not successful. So, yeah, I think about it all the time. I just think about what it would be like to fly. You know, would I go tomorrow? Strap me on. I would fly in a heartbeat. Because exploration, it\u2019s built into our DNA. When we\u2019re little, we explore our crib, right? And when we get out of that\u2014finally get to the point where we can crawl out\u2014we explore our room and then our house and then our neighborhood. We don\u2019t stop and say, \u201cI\u2019ve learned enough. I don\u2019t want to go to the next neighborhood,\u201d or \u201cI don\u2019t want to go to the next city.\u201d It\u2019s built into us to have a desire to learn something new, see something new, and do something different.\u00a0<\/p>\n
JACOB: One thing that I always ask people: What are you still curious about? Whether it\u2019s at work or something, like, completely outside of work.\u00a0<\/p>\n
DAVID: Gosh. I\u2019m curious every day. I like anything that challenges me. And the best thing you can do if you want me to do something is just tell me I can\u2019t do it or I\u2019d better not do it. Either one of those is\u2014that\u2019s a trigger for me. <\/p>\n
[MUSIC: \u201cEnigmatic Serenity\u201d by JC Lemay]<\/p>\n
You ever laid in your backyard at night and looked up at the stars? What\u2019s out there? Right? We ask ourselves, what\u2019s out there? When I lay out, and I look and I see all the stars, it makes you feel really small in the grand scheme of things, but then it makes you feel really big that you\u2019re a piece of this overall universe. And you can either choose to do something positive and add to it and help add to the legacy of what we\u2019re doing in this country, or you can choose not to be a part of it. I choose to be a part of it.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"NASA\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/vehicle-across-the-water-ksc-20260117-ph-kls03-0055orig.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
[MUSIC: \u201cInner Peace\u201d by JC Lemay]<\/p>\n
PADI: This is NASA\u2019s Curious Universe, an official NASA podcast. Our Artemis II series was written and produced by Christian Elliott and Jacob Pinter.\u00a0Our executive producer is Katie Konans.\u00a0Wes Buchanan designed the show art for this series. Music for the series comes from Universal Production Music.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
JACOB: We had support throughout this series from Rachel Kraft, Lisa Allen, Lora Bleacher, Brandi Dean, Courtney Beasley, Amber Jacobson, and Thalia Patrinos. Huge thanks to the subject matter experts you heard in this episode, as well as Amy Marasia from NASA and Jim Skaggs from Lockheed Martin.\u00a0At Kennedy Space Center, we had help from Allison Tankersley.\u00a0At Johnson Space Center, we had help from Rad Sinyak and Will Flato. At Marshall Space Flight Center, we had help from Marcia Lindstrom, Janet Sudnik, and Alex Russell.\u00a0You can find transcripts for every episode of Curious Universe \u2014 and explore NASA\u2019s other podcasts \u2014 at nasa.gov\/podcasts.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
If you enjoyed this episode of NASA\u2019s Curious Universe, tell us about it! Leave us a review wherever you\u2019re listening right now. Why not send a link to one of your friends? And you can follow NASA\u2019s Curious Universe in your favorite podcast app to get a notification each time we post a new episode.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Episode description:\u00a0\u00a0 During Artemis II, humans will fly Orion\u2014NASA\u2019s next-generation spaceship designed to take us to the Moon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441353,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[3105,63353,64,1590,63,196888,30542,196889,30300,14572,20472,48035,225036,1591,128,285,92395,196890],"class_list":{"0":"post-441352","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-artemis","9":"tag-artemis-2","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-audio","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-christina-h-koch","14":"tag-earths-moon","15":"tag-g-reid-wiseman","16":"tag-goddard-space-flight-center","17":"tag-humans-in-space","18":"tag-johnson-space-center","19":"tag-marshall-space-flight-center","20":"tag-orion-program","21":"tag-podcasts","22":"tag-science","23":"tag-space","24":"tag-space-launch-system-sls","25":"tag-victor-j-glover"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}