Thread by @thesheetztweetz

NASA administrator Bill Nelson is now speaking at the #CST2022 conference:

@SenBillNelson Nelson, introduced as a person who has flown to space, opens his comments by joking: "My critics wished that I had gone on a one way mission."

@SenBillNelson Nelson calls out the recent DART launch as a NASA mission that particularly "got people's attention."

@SenBillNelson Nelson also references the increased activity of commercial space transpiration to the ISS, noting that SpaceX is "soon to be joined by Boeing later this year" in delivering astronauts to the space station.

@SenBillNelson Nelson: After the ISS retires in 2030, then NASA wants "the commercial industry to take over low Earth orbit."

"There will be at least one, if not many, commercial space stations where this research and manufacturing are going" to take place.

@SenBillNelson Nelson: SLS will "roll out to the pad probably in March, early March." A month after the wet dress rehearsal it will roll back to the VAB, and a month after that will roll back out to the pad for the Artemis I launch.

@SenBillNelson Nelson, describing the Artemis III crewed mission, says that NASA astronauts will be delivered to the surface by "the SpaceX lander Starliner."

@SenBillNelson Nelson references the @Axiom_Space Ax-1 mission and former NASA astronaut @CommanderMLA, saying the agency made "sure that they were prepared" to visit the ISS and that the mission is "going to showcase the power of NASA investment in commercial space."

@SenBillNelson @Axiom_Space @CommanderMLA Nelson: "NASA's return to the moon and the agency's success in establishing a lunar economy is going to require competition."

NASA leadership is "committed to having competition" on HLS. Didn't have enough money for first landing, but intend for LSTS to award future contracts.

@SenBillNelson @Axiom_Space @CommanderMLA Nelson says NASA wants to establish a cadence of about one crewed lunar mission per year.

@SenBillNelson @Axiom_Space @CommanderMLA Nelson: "We're charting a new era. It's not the Apollo generation; it's the Artemis generation ... we're not going to stop exploring the heavens. We're not going to stop daring to take another step into the unknown, for the sake of humanity."