Hotline Feature – Rod Pyle: Artemis II Launch Window, the New Space Race with China, and Nuclear Propulsion to Mars

Space historian and author Rod Pyle joins Dave Weekley to break down NASA's biggest near-term milestones. With Artemis II targeting a launch window in early April for the first crewed test of the SLS rocket, Pyle explains what the mission will and won't do — a flyby rather than an orbital mission — and what NASA hopes to learn about life support, trajectory, and ground control before any lunar landing attempt. He outlines how competition with China is driving the current pace of American space activity, details China's alternate lunar mission architecture, and addresses Coop's question about NASA's proposed nuclear electric propulsion mission to Mars. The conversation closes with a look at the health challenges of deep space travel and Iran's use of satellite launch technology to extend ballistic missile range.