NASA’s new race to put a woman on the moon – 60 Minutes

Twelve American men have walked on the moon. The last Apollo astronaut left his footprint there in December 1972. Now, a half-century later, NASA is planning to send people back to the moon. The new program is called Artemis, after Apollo’s mythical twin sister, and the goal is that the next footprint on the moon will be made by a woman. The astronaut who gets that assignment hasn’t been chosen yet.

As you’re about to see, this new push to the moon has been plagued by doubts, cost overruns, and delays. But we found something else interesting when we visited NASA: the Artemis program isn’t just named for a woman, it’s largely being run by women

Charlie Blackwell-Thompson: So there is no place on launch day that I would wanna be but right here.

Charlie Blackwell-Thompson is NASA’s first female launch director. 

In a year or so, she’ll give the “go for launch” command for the first Artemis moon rocket in historic Firing Room One at Kennedy Space Center, which she first visited more than 30 years ago as a college graduate interviewing for a job.

Charlie Blackwell-Thompson: It’s the same room that the Apollo 11 mission was launched from. And it is the same room that we will launch the first flight of the Artemis missions.

Bill Whitaker: When that young woman walked in here for the first time, did you truly say to yourself, “I want to do this one day”?

Charlie Blackwell-Thompson: I absolutely did. My– my thought was, “How do I get a seat in this room?

Bill Whitaker: And now you have “the” seat in the room.

Charlie Blackwell-Thompson: I have a pretty nice seat in this room. (LAUGHTER)

All the Apollo moon missions were launched atop huge Saturn five rockets, at the time the most powerful in the world. NASA’s new rocket is even more muscular.

Bill Whitaker: Can you put it into words how powerful this new rocket is?

Charlie Blackwell-Thompson:  The core stage will have hundreds of thousands of gallons of propellant. Over eight million pounds of thrust at liftoff.

The most powerful rocket ever is called the Space Launch System, or SLS. In development for a decade, it has yet to fly; and has only fired its four main engines once, in a test.

Jody Singer: It is hard work cheating gravity.

Jody Singer is another female first for NASA: as the first woman to run Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, it’s been her job to build the SLS, which is designed to go to the moon and beyond.

Jody Singer: It is built for going to deep space. And right now, it’s the only vehicle that exists that can carry the Orion and take what it does to be able to go to deep space. 

The Orion is the capsule that astronauts will ride on top of the SLS rocket. The first one is ready to go. The lunar lander is still in the “concept” stage, but NASA doesn’t really need it until the third Artemis moon mission.

Charlie Blackwell-Thompson: Artemis I is about testing out this integrated vehicle, SLS with Orion. Artemis II is about the incorporation of the crew, and preparing us for Artemis III. Where, then, we will go to the surface of the moon.

Bill Whitaker: Do you hear…