Today, Humans Are Going Farther Than Ever Before!
Today, April 6, 2026, the Artemis II spacecraft will carry four humans to a distance of 406,773 kilometers from Earth, the farthest humans have ever gone.
In celebration of this accomplishment, I attach below a transcript of two recent interviews I had in the company of former NASA administrator, Jim Bridenstine, with the anchor Shannon Cake on Newsmax (accessible in video form here and here). Shannon’s questions are marked with SC, while my and Jim’s answers are marked with AL and JB, respectively.
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Pre-launch episode (April 1, 2026): Humans are going deeper into space than ever before — Avi Loeb and former NASA Chief Jim Bridenstine.
SC: Former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine is joining us along with Professor Avi Loeb, the director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at Harvard University.
Thanks to both of you for being with us.
So, Dr. Loeb, I feel like the image that we’re getting at NASA right now is perfect for your title involving theory and computation. That’s a lot of computation going on. I think as we look on at the screen. I’m hoping you can see it too, sir. But the astronauts have been prepped. It appears they’re in their seats. There is a whole lot of controls. That is way too much for my simple math brain. But, sir, walk us through what’s happening here on the screen.
AL: This is an amazing feat that for 54 years we have been waiting for. I’m ten years older than that but there are many people that were born after the last long flight into space. And it’s really inspiring for humanity to contemplate going to space.
And I hope it will open a new page in our space exploration, of settling people on the Moon. But going beyond that, there are discussions of going to Mars. There might be space platforms that carry humans to even longer journeys altogether. I think we should not keep our minds only on what happens on this rock that we were born on.
We are often engaged with what happens here on earth through geopolitics. But it’s far more inspiring to go out to space because that would obviously be important for the long-term survival of humanity. What we are seeing is lots of details about the maneuvering of the rocket and, and how to engage with the data that comes in. And that involves computers that nowadays are far better than were used 54 years ago. We have much better technologies, but we’ve never practiced them in recent history. And Artemis II will be followed by additional launches, Artemis III and eventually settling on the Moon, bringing a nuclear reactor there, also establishing infrastructure and perhaps scientific endeavors that, the Moon is a much better platform for. There is no atmosphere there. There is no seismic noise. There are many benefits going there. One obviously is to maintain the technological superiority of the U.S., carrying the torch forward for the entirety of humanity.
SC: Yeah, I’m glad you mentioned that. The importance of getting back there first, right before anyone else. Administrator Bridenstine, we were talking with you and watching the prep go on. And sir, as you see something, please jump in and tell our audience what you’re seeing and what’s significant about it. But these astronauts, they are traveling farther from earth with a possible Moon landing in 2028.
JB: I may borrow the language from the past. It’s the right language. This is a leap forward. We need to own it. This is a great moment for the United States of America.
You can see that the astronauts are in those orange spacesuits. They’ve got their helmets on. That’s because when this vehicle launches, it is a pressurized capsule and it’s going into the vacuum of space. But if it loses pressure, you’ve got the backup system, which is your spacesuit. Those orange spacesuits are a safety function. And then you’ve got the screens that they’re manipulating. They’re doing all kinds of checks and tests. And back in the fire control room, they’re communicating with all kinds of engineers and operators that are also going through systems, checks and tests. And tonight it’s going to launch to space.
Now, it’s also true those orange spacesuits are not the same spacesuits you would use to walk on the Moon. We do need to go to the surface of the Moon.
Jared Isaacman, the current NASA administrator, has said we’re going to build a Moon base. Well, that means we need spacesuits for walking on the surface of the Moon. It’s an entirely different spacesuit, which is also different than a spacesuit for a spacewalk. But we’re going to learn all kinds of things on this flight. The astronauts, of course, are going to test the control systems to make sure that they can do what’s called rendezvous and proximity operations, ultimately for the purpose of docking to a human landing system that can go down to the surface of the Moon. And we’re going to be testing all of the ways that we live and work in space for a period of ten days, well beyond the Van Allen radiation belt into deep space, where there’s some harsh radiation environments.
But it’s only a ten-day mission, and they’re going to learn lots of data about the radiation environment around the Moon as well, bring back that data and hopefully get us prepped for 2028.
SC: Dr. Loeb, I have about 30 seconds left, sir. Just speak, if you will, and close this out. As you look at the screen, the importance of this mission, what you hope it brings and perhaps the energy in the space race that it brings to all of us, right?
AL: The U.S. definitely has to win the space race. This is inspiring for all humans on Earth. As of now, we are only contemplating round trips, but in the distant future, there will be humans that will go to these destinations on a one-way ticket, and that would be a very different trip. And hopefully they’ll have the infrastructure, the resources to stay there for a while and develop technologies and infrastructure that are really at the forefront. And as of now, we haven’t used, for example, artificial intelligence in space. We can start using that in the coming years.
SC: This takes you to a whole other level, doesn’t it? Jim Bridenstine and Professor Avi Loeb, great conversation, gentlemen. Thanks for watching walking us through this.
Moon Flyby episode (April 6, 2026): Artemis II To Make a Historic Lunar Flyby — Avi Loeb and former NASA Chief Jim Bridenstine.
SC: Former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, is joining us this morning. Also with us today, the Director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at Harvard University, Professor Avi Loeb.
Gentlemen, good to see you both. Jim, the Artemis II crew getting ready for this lunar flyby. This is the farthest humans have traveled from Earth, surpassing the Apollo 13 record more than 50 years ago. The lead of NASA’s Artemis crew explains just how far they’ll reach. Listen to this.
“And then to come in for that injection, we came all the way back to Earth again. We were out there at 60,000 kilometers. We came back to within 200 kilometers of the planet. And it just felt like we were falling out of the sky, back to Earth. And I said to Reid, it feels like we’re going to hit it. It’s amazing that we’re actually going to go around and miss this thing.”
SC: But they didn’t. They took off once again. But boy, so close to home, right? How incredible historic is this achievement? Jim, let’s start with you.
JB: Obviously this is what it’s all about tonight. Obviously, we have the launch, which is super exciting. We’re going to have the entry, descent and landing, which is also exciting. But the mission is really about going to the Moon. And tonight we go to the Moon. The astronauts are going to see an Earth set and they’re going to see an Earth rise. At the same time, while they’re behind the Moon, it’s going to be a blackout.
They’re not going to have a signal. And so that means for a period of 40 minutes, our astronauts are not going to be able to communicate back to the Earth. But in that time, records are going to be broken. They’re going to fly closer to the Moon than at any point on this journey. And at the same time, they’re closest to the Moon. They’re going to be farther from the Earth than any humans in the history of the Earth, which is a magnificent achievement. So, there are so many different things that are going to happen tonight. This is what it’s all about.
We are super excited about it.
SC: Absolutely we are.
Dr. Loeb, let me bring you into the conversation. Tell me, what are they going to have to work fast. As Jim just laid out, there is a lot of things happening simultaneously and the window is short. What are they trying to capture and how significant is it?
AL: This is a very exciting day. One day after rising to the Moon on Easter, the astronauts will observe the Moon’s far side from about 4,000 to 6,000 miles away, viewing never seen before terrain, including craters, frozen rock flows and massive basins. And they will document high elevation craters, ancient volcanic structures, potential meteorite impact flashes. Altogether, it would be also exciting for our scientific understanding of the Moon.
But all in all, this is the first step in coming close to the Moon. The next step is such a mission with the lander and ultimately establishing a base on the Moon with a nuclear reactor and with scientific infrastructure. And frankly, I will be delighted to go on a one-way trip to the Moon once the infrastructure is there.
SC: Would you really? I think I’d want to be able to come back. I don’t know about you, Jim. One way. But that’s what we’re going for, right? That’s kind of the plan is to be able to, you know, see what we can do to set up on the Moon.
On board the Orion, Jim, the crew practiced putting on these pumpkin-colored pressure suits in case of emergencies. They did that in the last 24 hours. What kind of situations could or would arise that would necessitate that?
JB: Well, imagine if they were to hit like a micrometeoroid or something and they lost pressure for a period of time. The capsule is designed to quickly create more pressure so that not all is lost. But at the same time, they’ll need to quickly put on their spacesuits, which, of course, are designed to be pressurized so that they’ll have everything they need to survive and come home safely in their pressurized suits. So that’s what that’s all about. They’re practicing now. You’ll see them wear the suits on launch and on reentry just in general, but they also practice around the Moon. I would also say when we talk about this lunar base that we’re going to build, our astronauts tonight are going to look down and they’re going to see portions, small slivers of this south pole of the Moon. That’s where there’s hundreds of millions of tons of water ice, which, of course, is not just water to drink. It’s also oxygen to breathe and its hydrogen for fuel. And all that is present on the south pole of the Moon. So, they’re looking for opportunities for the future to land and build that lunar base.
SC: Wow. Let’s talk about that,
Professor, a little bit further. You were talking about the plan, the stages. Artemis III would then launch and test rovers, if I’m understanding that correctly, and then perhaps, you know, get maybe boots back to the Moon again with Artemis IV. Is this what the plan is, and are we on track?
AL: Yes, but it’s a very different plan than the Apollo missions in the sense that the idea is to establish a base, establish the superiority of the United States technology and science in leading humanity into space. And that means putting also scientific infrastructure there. There are various proposals for taking advantage of the lack of an atmosphere on the Moon and the lack of any seismic noise from earthquakes and so forth.
Altogether, it’s an amazing opportunity as a first step towards Mars. Eventually, we might go to Mars. These are two rocks that happen to be closest to Earth that nature gave us an opportunity to land on. But ultimately, the way I see it is the initial steps towards establishing a space platform that carries humans or robots with AI out of the solar system.
You know, the Milky Way is a far greater landscape. There is much more real estate out there, and it’s for humanity to take.
SC: It is extraordinary to think about when you lay it out like that and the incredible opportunity.
Jim, I know that NASA, they scrapped a planned trajectory correction over the weekend. What was that about? And does it mean that they’re back on course and there’s no longer any sort of threat? And was there ever a threat?
JB: Oh, no, they just hit the numbers so perfectly. They didn’t have to actually do a course correction which is remarkable. What that means is that the systems are working. They’re working exactly how they’re supposed to work, and they didn’t need a course correction.
All of that, I think, is very, very positive news. It actually is good for saving fuel for future missions. We can have even better confidence on how our systems operate and the data that we’re able to collect and utilize in these missions.
Just to be clear, Artemis III is going to be a mission to Earth orbit, where the Orion crew capsule is going to interact in Earth orbit with a landing system for the Moon. And Artemis IV and V are intended to be Moon landings. So, there’s a rapid sequence of events that’s going to happen here. And it’s going to require all of America to get behind us to move as quickly as possible. Because the goal is, in fact, to not just orbit the Moon, but land on the Moon before China and start operating a lunar base on the South Pole.
It has been really exciting to see new life really back in NASA’s lungs and then the partnership that has also occurred with private industry.
SC: Final thoughts, Dr. Loeb. We have a few seconds left.
AL: Clearly the technology that is being employed right now is far better than back in the 1960s and 1970s. For example, about 38 gigabytes of data are being transmitted per day from Orion. That’s why we see such beautiful images. This laser communication will be very useful in the future for quantum computing and communication infrastructure.
There are lots of technological advances being used on this mission, and we should all salute NASA for doing such a fantastic job.
SC: It’s been fun to watch and much more to come, and it’ll be an exciting day, I know, for the two of you and the entire world. Former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, Director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at Harvard University, Professor Avi Loeb.
Gentlemen, thanks so much. I had a great conversation with you last week when I hosted another show, and I asked our team to bring you both back. It’s really wonderful to have you on the morning with us. Appreciate your time, always.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Avi Loeb is the head of the Galileo Project, founding director of Harvard University’s — Black Hole Initiative, former director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and the former chair of the astronomy department at Harvard University (2011–2020). He is a former member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and a former chair of the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies. He is the bestselling author of “Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth” and a co-author of the textbook “Life in the Cosmos”, both published in 2021. The paperback edition of his new book, titled “Interstellar”, was published in August 2024.
Professional website:
https://lweb.cfa.harvard.edu/~loeb/
Social media:
https://avi-loeb.medium.com/
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfessorAviLoeb
https://open.spotify.com/show/1zhndXkvSY2b8FdjspFpCd
https://x.com/ProfAviLoeb
