Artemis is in an interesting place right now. It’s a bit of a mess. But it has a lot of cool and interesting parts.

Artemis 2 might launch in 2026 with 4 astronauts for a loop around the moon. Artemis 3 might launch this decade for a lunar landing with 2 astronauts aboard a SpaceX Starship lander. A lot needs to happen for that to work, like massive progress on the Starship program and Axiom space suits, and continued progress on Lockheed’s Orion capsule.

Artemis 2 and 3 aren’t givens anymore in the DOGE era, but they might still happen. A4+ rely on a new SLS stage from Boeing (EUS) and a new launch tower from Bechtel that are both running way over cost. Also in the mix is Lunar Gateway, a space station around the moon that isn’t really needed to get to the surface, but includes some different parts from international partners. So, who knows. We’ll see what happens.

SpaceX’s Starship contracts with NASA are fixed price and milestone based. So, if they blow it up, that cost is on them. Just like Boeing has had to shell out a lot of money from continuing to fail on Starliner.

and achieved a navigation fix

I set low expectations when I saw the headline, but that means they saw at least 4 GNSS sats at once, which is pretty big step forward.

I brought up Northrop because I’m guessing they bid a Cygnus derived deorbit vehicle.

How is this a handout? They bid for a contract and won it vs competitors.

I’m hoping we get a source selection statement soon where they spell out why companies like Northrop and Blue didn’t win.

Yup, low earth orbit (LEO) still has some thin atmosphere that slows things down a tiny bit and makes them deorbit over time. That’s why, for example, the ISS has to reboost to stay up and can chuck garbage bags overboard and not really worry about them. The deorbit time depends on a lot of factors including the mass and surface area. Starlink sats are supposed to passively deorbit in about 5 years.