ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:
The Artemis II's Orion capsule is on its way to the moon. Its crew will travel more than 250,000 miles from Earth, the farthest humans have ever traveled into space. To talk more about this historic mission and what it means, we've called Bale Dalton. He's the former NASA chief of staff and has worked on the Artemis program. Welcome, Mr. Dalton.
BALE DALTON: Hi, Rob. Thanks so much for having me.
SCHMITZ: So this week, we witnessed NASA send a crew to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years. What was going through your mind during the liftoff?
DALTON: Well, it's obviously a incredible joy as a central Floridian to have so many people - hundreds of thousands of people - visit Central Florida for this incredible launch. You know, what's going through my mind at any time is, you know, my friends - Reid, Victor, Christina and Jeremy - are, you know, taking this mission and inspiring us all in our return to deep space and around the moon after 54 years. So both a mixture of inspiration and awe that I always have watching what NASA does and, you know, some anticipation for what my friends, this crew, are going to experience on behalf of all humanity.
SCHMITZ: And let's get into that. I mean, this was a viral moment. It was livestreamed on NASA's website. And as of now, the video of launch has more than 18 million views on YouTube. Can you talk a little bit about how NASA's strategy of communicating this launch to the public has gone?
DALTON: Absolutely. I mean, well, for me, it was an incredible honor to help lead NASA, you know, helping direct the efforts of tens of thousands of engineers, scientists, researchers and, of course, astronauts throughout 14 different facilities across our nation, you know, showing the world every day what Americans can accomplish when we work together. And, you know, NASA has some real value here in showing the world what is possible when that happens.
SCHMITZ: So one big change since the end of the Apollo program is the development of successful private space exploration companies like SpaceX or Blue Origin. How has this competition that they pose changed how NASA goes about its goals?
DALTON: Well, I think the future of space exploration and, of course, the future of NASA is these public-private partnerships and fostering this not only interest in going to space and doing the hard things and exploring, but also realizing how much it can foster our industry here. So not just, you know, inspiration of folks, but also how our industry and Americans are making things. I mean, the Moon To Mars program supports alone almost 100,000 jobs, which I think...
SCHMITZ: Wow.
DALTON: ...Is incredible and certainly meaningful for us here in central Florida.
SCHMITZ: So, you know, looking beyond Artemis II, if all goes as planned, NASA plans to put people on the moon as soon as 2028 as part of the Artemis IV mission. Now, NASA administrator Jared Isaacman has plans for a moon base as well, something I've read that you also support. Now, it's worth pointing out here that China aims to put people on the moon by 2030 and also has plans for a lunar base. How important is it that the US builds a base on the moon before China does that?
DALTON: Well, I think this - you know, Moon To Mars and the Artemis campaign is, you know, an extension of what our future plans in space are going to be. And, you know, we're going back to the moon this time, first of all, to a different part of the moon - the South Pole, where we think, you know, water ice is. And we're going there to learn how to live, work, and cultivate resources like that water ice to help inform how we might do future human exploration through space. And I think the competition here is paramount. You know, we here in America have the competitive edge in our aerospace, which is, you know, visible in our space exploration. And, you know, in a time of limited resources and limited space, we need to make sure that responsible actors are the ones that are doing this exploration.
SCHMITZ: So let's go back to Artemis II. If all goes to plan, the crew should circle the moon on Monday. It's expected that they will lose communications with Earth for about 30 minutes or so. So what do you think mission control will be like during that time?
DALTON: Well, I think many folks might find themselves jealous of the Artemis crew getting, you know, between 30 and 60 minutes of solace and silence and able to just be with their thoughts as they see parts of the moon that have never been seen with human eyes before. But there in mission control, and certainly in my own mind, it will be a time of tense anticipation, of waiting to hear from them again on the other side. And - but it just goes to show the amount of effort and the amount of anticipation that's gone into this crew doing things that have never been done before - I mean, as you already said, traveling away from Earth on a total of 685,000-mile journey, being the furthest into space as any humans have ever been before.
SCHMITZ: As the former chief of staff for NASA, what are you going to be watching for as the mission continues?
DALTON: Well, there's a number of different milestones that this crew will be checking out, and a lot of those are in the weeds. As an engineer myself, I'm very interested in seeing come back and the testing of the equipment and the types of things that need to be done for our future missions to actually land on the surface of the moon. But I'm most anticipating seeing that crew and the Orion capsule named Integrity come down safely under the parachutes and the astronauts being retrieved by some of my former colleagues in the Navy flying helicopters and manning the ships that will retrieve the crew. So I'm looking forward to them safely back on earth.
SCHMITZ: That's Bale Dalton. He's the former chief of staff for NASA. Thank you.
DALTON: Thanks so much, Rob. I appreciate it.
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