NASA is reconsidering the use of a massive mobile launcher at the Kennedy Space Center, raising questions about costs, delays and jobs tied to the Artemis moon program.

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – Space Shuttle Columbia lifted off for the third shuttle test flight on March 22 in 1982 for STS-3 from Kennedy Space Center. Eight days later, it became the only shuttle to land at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico.

The Kennedy Space Center director didn’t mince words. “We stand at a pivotal moment,” Janet Petro told state lawmakers in Tallahassee last fall.

The Kennedy Space Center hosts and manages NASA missions, along with an escalating flow of commercial space traffic from companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin.

Congress approved some funding to relocate the Space Shuttle Discovery to Space Center Houston, which prompted some pushback from historians and government officials. NASA says it reserves the right to ask contractors not to damage the spacecraft.

NASA has offered a sneak peek inside its Mars simulation habitat where four volunteers have now spent 150 days isolated from the outside world. By living within the confines of the 1,700-square-foot Mars Dune Alpha habitat at the Johnson Space Center in Houston,