To the moon!
The week's news at a glance.
Cape Canaveral, Fla.
NASA this week unveiled its plan for returning to the moon, saying it would combine parts from Apollo rockets and space shuttles to get the job done by 2018. Relying on old equipment, officials said, will be faster and cheaper than testing and building a newfangled spacecraft. “Think of it as Apollo on steroids,” said the space agency’s administrator, Michael Griffin. President Bush has called for returning to the moon as a steppingstone toward exploring Mars. But with the Iraq war and the rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina adding to the already massive federal budget deficit, critics said the $104 billion price tag for a lunar mission would be a tough sell in Congress. The last manned lunar mission, Apollo 17, was in 1972.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
Sign up to our 10 Things You Need to Know Today newsletter
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
-
10 things you need to know today: December 3, 2023
Daily Briefing Gaza residents flee as Israel continues bombardment, Trump tells supporters to ‘guard the vote’ in Democratic cities, and more
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
5 X-plosive cartoons about Elon Musk
Cartoons Artists take on his proposed clean-up of X, his views on advertisers, and more
By The Week US Published
-
2023: the year of superhero fatigue
The Explainer The year may represent the end of an era for Hollywood
By Brendan Morrow, The Week US Published