NASA to discuss Artemis moon lander plan for astronauts today. How to listen online.

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NASA plans to use SpaceX's Starship to land the next astronauts on the moon.

Nearly a year ago, NASA picked its next moon ship to land astronauts on the lunar surface: SpaceX's Starship. Today, the U.S. space agency will provide an update on its Artemis program moon lander plan and you'll be able to listen to it live online. 

NASA will hold a press teleconference at 3:30 p.m. EDT (1930 GMT) to "provide an update on the agency's goals to transport astronauts from lunar orbit to the surface of the Moon under Artemis," agency officials wrote in a statement. You'll be able to listen to that briefing live on this page, as well as directly from NASA here.

"Astronaut Moon landers are a vital part of NASA's deep space exploration plans, along with the Space Launch System rocket, Orion spacecraft, ground systems, and Gateway," NASA wrote in the statement. "NASA is committed to using commercial landers to carry astronauts to the surface of the Moon, expanding exploration and preparing humanity for the next giant leap, human exploration of Mars." 

Photos: NASA rolls Artemis 1 moon mission to the launch pad for 1st time

This SpaceX concept shows the company's massive Starship vehicle on the moon as a lunar lander for NASA Artemis astronauts.  (Image credit: SpaceX)
Related stories:

— NASA picks SpaceX's Starship to land Artemis astronauts on the moon
— NASA's new moon rocket, its most powerful ever, rolls out for 1st time
— Artemis 1 moon rocket rollout: Meet the NASA crawler carrier doing the heavy lifting

NASA picked SpaceX's huge Starship rocket as its moon lander of choice for Artemis program astronauts in April 2021. The private company, which already ferries NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station, beat out competing bids from the company Dynetics and a team led by Blue Origin that included Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper. With the win, SpaceX nabbed a $2.9 billion contract to provide the Human Landing System for NASA's Artemis program. 

Blue Origin and Dynetics protested NASA's selection of SpaceX, with Blue Origin losing a federal lawsuit over the matter last November. 

Today's teleconference will include comments from NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, as well as Jim Free, the associate administrator for NASA Exploration Systems Development; Mark Kirasich, deputy associate administrator for Artemis campaign development; and Lisa Watson-Morgan, the agency's Human Landing System program manager.

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Tariq Malik
Tariq Malik
Editor-in-Chief

Tariq is the Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001, first as an intern and staff writer, and later as an editor. He covers human spaceflight, exploration and space science, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Managing Editor in 2009 and Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. In October 2022, Tariq received the Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting from the National Space Club Florida Committee. He is also an Eagle Scout (yes, he has the Space Exploration merit badge) and went to Space Camp four times as a kid and a fifth time as an adult. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University. You can find Tariq at Space.com and as the co-host to the This Week In Space podcast with space historian Rod Pyle on the TWiT network. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik.