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The Vice President introduces the Artemis
team of astronauts …

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Progress on hardware for upcoming Artemis
missions …

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And the science priorities for our next human
mission on the Moon … a few of the stories

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to tell you about – This Week at NASA!

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On Dec. 9, we announced 18 NASA astronauts
that will form the Artemis Team to help pave

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the way for the next astronaut missions on
and around the Moon as part of the Artemis

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program.

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Vice President Mike Pence introduced the team
and made remarks during the eighth National

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Space Council meeting at our Kennedy Space
Center in Florida.

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“Really is amazing to think that the next
man and first woman on Moon are among the

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names that we just read and they may be standing
in the room with us right now.

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My fellow Americans, I give you the heroes
of the future who will carry us back to the

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Moon and beyond – the Artemis generation.

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[applause]”

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NASA will announce flight assignments for
Artemis Team astronauts later, with additional

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Artemis Team members, including international
partner astronauts, joining this group, as

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needed.

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While testing and preparations continue for
next year’s uncrewed Artemis I mission to

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the Moon, technicians at our Michoud Assembly
Facility are simultaneously manufacturing

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the Space Launch System core stages for the
Artemis II and Artemis III missions.

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All the main core stage structures for Artemis
II are being outfitted with electronics, feedlines,

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propulsion systems, and other components,
while a process called friction stir welding

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is being used to assemble the core stage structures
for Artemis III.

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On Dec. 7, NASA released a report defining
the agency’s science priorities for the

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Artemis III mission.

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The priority science goals include a better
understanding of fundamental planetary processes

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that operate across the solar system and beyond,
a greater knowledge of how the Moon formed

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and evolved, and characterizing the origin,
movement, and preservation of water and other

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resources on the Moon.

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The report is available online at nasa.gov/reports.

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An upgraded SpaceX Dragon resupply spacecraft
arrived at the International Space Station

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on Dec. 7 with more than 6,400 pounds of science
investigations, a new airlock, and other cargo,

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just one day after launching from our Kennedy
Space Center.

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Less than a month after launching to space,
the joint U.S.-European Sentinel-6 Michael

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Freilich satellite has sent back some of its
first sea level measurements.

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The satellite will move into its operational
orbit by mid-December, then spend the next

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6 to 12 months checking the data it collects.

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It’s also monitoring atmospheric conditions
that will help improve weather and hurricane

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forecasts.

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Highlights from the virtual American Geophysical
Union meeting include findings that the Solar

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Orbiter mission, a collaboration between the
European Space Agency and NASA, is making

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the first direct connections between events
at the solar surface and what’s happening

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in interplanetary space around the spacecraft.

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Data from the mission have provided new insights
into so-called “solar campfires” that

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crop up on the surface of the Sun, solar wind
and space weather, and disintegrating comets.

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NASA is remembering U.S. Air Force pilot,
General Chuck Yeager who passed away Dec.

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7.

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In addition to his military service during
World War II, he may be best known for becoming

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the first person to fly faster than the speed
of sound as an aeronautical test pilot in

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October 1947.

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In a statement, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine
said Yeager’s achievements advanced America's

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abilities in the sky, set our nation's dreams
soaring into the jet age and the space age,

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and will guide us for generations to come.

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That’s what’s up this week @NASA …