Artemis II is NASA’s last moon mission without Silicon Valley | TechCrunch

Last day to exhibit your breakthrough to 10,000+ tech leaders at Disrupt is on Oct 2. Book Exhibit Table Now. Disrupt doors open Oct. 13. Get your pass and bring someone with you at 50% off. REGISTER NOW. SpaceX launched its IPO on the same day the U.S. sent astronauts to the moon for the first time in 54 years. And the timing is appropriate: This is likely the last time NASA will try to send people to deep space without major assistance from a company that emerged from the venture-backed tech scene. The origins of NASA’s current lunar campaign trace a complicated path back to the second Bush administration, which began developing an enormous rocket and a spacecraft called Orion to return to the moon. By 2010, the project had grown over budget and was pared back — and paired with a new program to back private companies building new orbital rockets. That decision led to a company-saving contract for SpaceX and a rush of venture capital into extraterrestrial technology, and to the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket that is now carrying three Americans and one Canadian around the moon and back. The SLS is the most powerful operational rocket in the world today. It has flown just once be