NASA adopting Apollo’s urgency to build a moon base and land astronauts within two years

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA is moving fast on its plans to build a moon base and return astronauts to the lunar surface in as little as two years.Administrator Jared Isaacman said Friday that the space agency is still on track to launch Artemis III next summer on a docking exercise with Elon Musk's and Jeff Bezos' lunar landers. The two-week mission featuring four astronauts will be confined to orbit around Earth — no moon trip this time.The all-important Artemis IV — NASA's first moon landing by astronauts since Apollo — remains scheduled for 2028, Isaacman said. His update came six months after the successful Artemis II flight around the moon by four astronauts, humanity's first lunar trip in more than half a century.NASA will keep its options open as long as possible before choosing between SpaceX and Blue Origin for the Artemis IV lunar lander, according to officials.Isaacman said the “new space race” to land astronauts on the moon — racing against China now versus the Soviet