Listen to part two of SpaceNews' event at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center
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In this episode, SpaceNews’ Mike Gruss talks with NASA’s Shatel Bhakta, the principal systems engineer for Moon Base, about what’s needed between now and 2028 and the incremental steps to the future.
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Mike Gruss: [Building a moon base] is framed as a race sometimes with China, and I wanted to hear how you thought about that. I'm not being flip about it but what does winning mean, or what does a winner get?
Shatel Bhakta: It may be considered a race, but I think any good competitor knows first you've got to focus on yourself. We know that we can do better ... I use the analogy that we're kind of playing the role of Dr. Strange of trying to figure out all the different possibilities that could happen in the future for the evolution of Moon Base, but trying to choose a path for NASA now and for the industry now that would give us the best chance at success in the near term. And so as you're trying to do that, the challenges that are in front of us are more internal than they are external.
Gruss: So it's an internal race, not an external race.
Bhakta: To me it is. But it'd be nice if we won the larger race too.
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FROM SPACENEWS |
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Gen. Michael Guetlein at the 2026 Icon Awards: The direct reporting program manager for Golden Dome for America joins us on Dec. 1 in Washington, D.C. to deliver a keynote address during our awards program. See the list of finalists and secure your spot as we gather to announce our 2026 winners, recognizing leaders and accomplishments that exemplified excellence across the industry during the last 12 months. Register today – early bird pricing ends Oct. 31. |
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