One of the goals of SLS was to reuse remaining hardware from NASA’s Shuttle program where possible. This was intended to be a cost-saving measure, but given the high price of a single SLS stack costs more than two billion dollars: The SLS rocket for Artemis II (and each Artemis mission) costs approximately $4.1 billion per launch per the NASA OIG, with about half of that being tied up in the rocket and capsule. That’s a lot of money.

Still, there (is) a lot of previously flown pieces of hardware on America’s newest moon rocket.

President Donald Trump blamed a technical glitch for an awkward, minute-long silence during his Monday-night phone call with the astronauts aboard the Artemis II lunar flyby spacecraft.

The call then turned awkward.

The astronauts did not respond, instead opting to watch the microphone they were using to communicate float through the air while smiling awkwardly at the camera.

Approximately one full minute of silence followed, with Trump also quiet on the other end of the line.