Technologies

NASA Pushes Back Next Moon Landing to Artemis IV Mission

NASA wants its Space Launch System rocket to stop requiring yearslong launch delays.

NASA is shaking up its Artemis program in a big way. The space agency held a press conference on Friday to discuss the continued delays of the Artemis II mission and address various changes to the program, which should help reduce the long waits between launches.

In light of multiple Artemis II delays, NASA believes putting humans back on the moon with Artemis III is too ambitious. It’s now delaying a moon landing until Artemis IV.

The Artemis II mission had been scheduled for launch in February but was pushed back after NASA’s SLS rocket failed its first wet dress rehearsal due to a hydrogen and helium fuel leak. The second test run was more successful, but NASA again delayed the launch due to «helium flow» issues discovered after the test, which required the rocket to return to the hangar for additional repairs.

The new launch date for Artemis II is no earlier than April 1.

Speeding up the Artemis missions

According to NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, the Artemis II delay stems from the SLS rocket’s extended launch cadence. Isaacman told reporters on Friday that after three years, skills can «atrophy,» and that asking personnel to stick around for years for the next launch is not tenable.

The key to more successful launches is to simply launch more frequently, he said.

«Launching a rocket as complex as the SLS every three years is not a path to success,» Isaacman said during the press conference. «When you are experiencing some of the same issues between launches, you take a close look at your process for remediation, whether you’re getting the true technical root cause, or are you getting close to it.»

For now, NASA is making changes to the agency and the Artemis missions, including shaking up personnel, standardizing the SLS rocket so it can launch more often and getting «back to the basics» to launch missions faster.

The ultimate goal is to have missions ready to launch every 10 months rather than every three years.

When will each Artemis mission launch now?

NASA still intends to put astronauts on the moon by 2028. Here is the new launch schedule for the Artemis missions:

Artemis II: Will launch no earlier than April 1, 2026, and will send astronauts around the moon to conduct tests.
Artemis III: Scheduled launch is mid-2027 to perform tests, connecting with lunar landers in low Earth orbit and testing gear that will go on Artemis IV.
Artemis IV: Scheduled launch is early 2028, and it will send humans back to the moon.
Artemis V: Could launch in late 2028 and send humans to the moon again. If Artemis III and IV are delayed, however, Artemis V will launch in 2029.

What will Artemis III do now?

Now that it’s no longer set to be the moon-landing mission, the new goal of Artemis III is to launch into low-Earth orbit, rendezvous with NASA’s lunar landers, perform tests and learn more about the effects of microgravity on lunar suits.

Per Isaacman, this is in response to concerns raised by NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel that the gap in mission objectives between Artemis II and Artemis III was too great, posing a risk to astronauts. The extra test flight will give NASA more data to better protect astronauts when they do go to the moon.

«We did not just jump to Apollo 11, we did it through Mercury, Gemini and lots of Apollo missions with a launch cadence (of) every three months,» Isaacman told reporters.

These discussions have been going on behind closed doors for quite some time, and NASA says that Congress and its commercial partners, like Boeing, are all-in on the new plan.

«As NASA lays out an accelerated launch schedule, our workforce and supply chain are prepared to meet the increased production needs,» said Steve Parker, Boeing’s defense, space and security president and CEO.

Technologies

Meta Raises Prices on Quest 3 and Quest 3S Due to RAM Shortage

The VR headsets are RAMageddon’s latest victims.

Meta’s latest virtual reality headset, the Meta Quest 3 (512 GB), will cost $100 more starting Sunday. You can blame the ongoing RAM shortage.

Meta released the pricing update on Wednesday in a blog post calling out price increases for the Meta Quest 3 and 3S models. «The cost of building high-performance VR hardware has risen significantly,» Meta said in the post explaining the increase.

High demand from AI data centers is straining memory chip supplies, causing supply constraints and price increases in consumer tech. Many experts aren’t expecting the RAM shortage to end until 2028.

Counterpoint Research released findings in February showing that RAM costs increased by 80% to 90% in the first quarter of this year. Tech companies continue to hike prices, with Microsoft being the latest to increase the cost of the Microsoft Surface and Samsung doing the same for some Galaxy devices.

Here’s the original pricing as of Thursday, along with what you can expect to pay starting April 19.

Price changes for Meta Quest 3 models

Meta Quest model and storage	Original price	New price
Meta Quest 3S (128 GB)	$300	$350
Meta Quest 3S (256 GB)	$400	$450
Meta Quest 3 (512 GB)	$500	$600

Expect price bumps for refurbished Meta Quest headsets. Prices for Quest accessories will remain the same for now, though we’re unsure whether this applies to games in the Meta store, or whether there’ll be a change in the future.

Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Meta Quest 3 and 3S are Meta’s latest virtual reality headsets. The Quest 3S is the budget-friendly version, while the Quest 3 is the «pro» model. CNET’s Scott Stein rated both models high for their mixed reality, with better color cameras and improvements from the Quest 2.

Technologies

Planet Parade in the Sky: How to View 4 Planets Lined Up This Week

The cosmic lineup of Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Neptune is here.

Space activity has picked up this month, with two meteor showers and the historic Artemis II mission, which sent humans back to the moon and splashed down on Earth last Friday.

Stargazers have a few more things coming in April, including a planet parade where four planets — Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Neptune — appear in the sky at the same time.

The small parade started on Thursday, April 16, and lasts until nearly the end of the month. All four planets will be relatively close to one another on the eastern horizon just before sunrise each day. To view the parade, you’ll need to stay up almost all night or wake up very early. And it’s best to grab a telescope.

The optimal time to view it depends on where you are. If you’re at a higher elevation, try just before 6 a.m. local time. If you’re at sea level, wait for the planets to come up above the horizon just after 6 a.m. local time. The planets will be swiftly chased by the sun, giving viewers a narrow window to view all four planets before sunrise.

Since sunrise varies based on location, you may have as long as 40 minutes or as little as 20 minutes to see all four planets. You’ll want to check the local sunrise times to see if you have enough time to spot all four before the sun comes up.

The proximity to the sun and the narrow window make April’s planet parade one of the more difficult ones to see, according to Geza Gyuk, senior director of astronomy at Chicago’s Adler Planetarium.

«Mercury is, as always, close to the sun and hard to see,» Gyuk told me. «Since Mars and Saturn will be close to Mercury, they will also be hard to see without a very low eastern horizon.»

The best days to try to see the planet parade are between Saturday, April 18 and Friday, April 24. Before those dates, Saturn is a bit close to the sun and rises late over the horizon, and after them, Mercury starts to drift precariously close to the sun.

Get out (or borrow) a telescope

Skygazers need a telescope at a minimum to see all four planets, since Neptune is not visible to the naked eye.

Even using a telescope, Gyuk says it takes some skill to pick out Neptune in the night sky. He recommends taking a pair of binoculars as well, since it’ll make the other three planets easier to see. But he warns skygazers to be careful not to look directly at the sun while using them.

The usual stargazing rules apply: You’ll have better luck away from light pollution, so leave the city and suburbs to get the best view.

The chance to see four planets in the sky at the same time, and so close together, isn’t terribly common. Gyuk says that astronomers tend not to refer to these events as planet parades — instead calling them «planetary alignments» — but also rarely pass up the opportunity to view planets in unique configurations like this.

«I always try to catch a glimpse at least whenever this sort of planetary alignment occurs,» Gyuk said. «It is a thrill to me.»

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for April 17 #775

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for April 17, No. 775.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is pretty difficult. Hope you know your sea creatures! Some of the answers are difficult to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Shell company.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: By the sea.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

LOCK, LOCKER, MOLLS, SOCK, TOLL, CALM, POLL, POLLS, POLE

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers: