America's historic return to the moon suffers ANOTHER setback



Space enthusiasts will have to wait even longer to see man set foot on the moon for the first time since 1972.

The delays are an interesting chapter in a book of American space exploration that has featured stranded astronauts, Elon Musk, and celebrity forays in recent years.

The lunar landing task would fall under Artemis IV, which has a launch date of early 2028.

In 2024, Boeing astronauts were stranded in space and had to be rescued by Musk's SpaceX program.

2025 saw headlines from the widely mocked New Shepard program, backed by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos. The all-female celebrity jaunt traveled to the Karman line, known internationally as the official boundary of space, grabbing attention while actual female astronauts were simultaneously in orbit conducting space operations.

At the same time, 2025 was meant to be the year NASA's Artemis III would land astronauts near the South Pole of the moon for the first time. Now, that target has been pushed back and the mission seems increasingly distant.

RELATED: Is real-life 'Star Wars' America's manifest destiny?

Photo bty CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images

Not only is Artemis III still not ready, but Artemis II hasn't even launched yet. Artemis II was planned as a crewed lunar orbit aimed at testing systems before the lunar landing. NASA gave it a mission window of late 2024.

However, in 2024, NASA pushed Artemis II back for the first time to September 2025, while Artemis III (the human landing) received a new window of September 2026. After more delays, the 10-day Artemis II mission has since been scheduled for no earlier than April 2026, but the lunar landing mission will be delayed even longer than expected.

Now, Artemis III is scheduled for mid-2027. Its official mission page states that it will launch by 2028. However, the parameters have now shifted and this mission will no longer complete a lunar surface landing at all.

That feat has since been bumped to another mission, according to NASA.

RELATED: Actresses Olivia Munn and Olivia Wilde mock all-female trip to space: 'Is it historic that you guys are going on a ride?'

Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP/Getty Images

The space program will certainly not be making any believers with its latest announcement in early March, which stated that the lunar landing task would fall under Artemis IV, which has a launch date of early 2028.

According to the announcement, NASA plans to launch another lunar surface mission, Artemis V, by the end of 2028, followed by subsequent annual missions thereafter.

"This mission also is when NASA is expected to begin building its moon base," NASA claimed.

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50 Years Ago Was The Last Time Humans Walked On The Moon

On that day, Apollo 17 astronauts Gene Cernan and Jack Schmitt undertook their third and final venture outside ‘Challenger.’

Muscle cars put on ice: 'Last call' for Dodge Charger, Challenger V8s



Two of Dodge's most iconic "muscle" cars will soon lose their tone. Beginning in December 2023, the Dodge Charger and Challenger will no longer feature the sound, feel, and smell of the V8 internal combustion engine as the company transitions ever further to electric vehicle formats.

"We are celebrating the end of an era — and the start of a bright new electrified future — by staying true to our brand,” said Dodge Brand CEO Tim Kuniskis. "At Dodge, we never lift, and the brand will mark the last of our iconic Charger and Challenger nameplates in the current form in the same way that got us here, with a passion both for our products and our enthusiasts that drives us to create as much uniqueness in the muscle car community and marketplace as possible."

And Dodge is certainly looking to retire the old-engine muscle cars with a bang. Six new versions of the cars will debut in the next few weeks, while a seventh is set to debut at the SEMA auto show in Las Vegas this November, according to Fox News.

In addition, each 2023 Challenger and Charger model will be outfitted with a "Last Call" decal on its hood. The cost for the cars varies considerably, from low $30,000s to $90,000 for the Hellcat model.

Should buyers prefer a convertible model, they will have the opportunity to retrofit a convertible top onto the Challenger model — for a price. The added convertible top will tack an additional $26,000 onto the bottom line.

Though the move to an electric version of the two cars is drastic, the Challenger and Charger have undergone a major renovation before. The two were very popular in the 1960s and 1970s, but were then shelved for nearly two decades, often in favor of models that better accorded with newly imposed environmental regulations.

Dodge then reintroduced the Charger in 2005 and the Challenger three years later. Both cars have been manufactured at the Dodge factor in Brampton, Ontario, in Canada ever since.

Dodge expects to release an electric muscle car in 2024.

Trump backs challenger to Georgia's GOP secretary of state



Former President Donald Trump has endorsed a challenger to take on Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a fellow Republican who has steadfastly insisted his state conducted a clean and fair general election despite Trump's insistence that the election was stolen from him.

What are the details?

Trump issued a statement endorsing Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.) in his bid to unseat Raffensperger, writing that Hice "has been a steadfast fighter for conservative Georgia values and is a staunch ally of the America First agenda."

"Unlike the current Georgia Secretary of State," the former president's statement read, "Jody leads out front with integrity."

As @JasonMillerinDC teased yesterday, here is former President Trump’s endorsement of @JodyHice for Georgia Secreta… https://t.co/3PNS7yrTlK
— Mike Emanuel 🇺🇸 (@Mike Emanuel 🇺🇸)1616421272.0

Hice came out swinging against Raffensperger in a statement announcing his candidacy Monday, saying that "[w]hat Brad Raffensperger did was create cracks in the integrity of our elections, which I wholeheartedly believe individuals took advantage of in 2020."

He added, "Every Georgian, in fact every American, has the right to be outraged by the actions and, simultaneously, the inaction of our Secretary of State."

Raffensperger hit back in a statement to ABC News, saying in reaction to Hice's challenge:

"Few have done more to cynically undermine faith in our election than Jody Hice. We saw in January what Georgia voters will do to candidates who use that rhetoric. His recklessness is matched by his fecklessness as a congressman. Georgia Republicans seeking a candidate who's accomplished nothing, now have one."

Raffensperger was referring to the Georgia Senate runoffs on Jan. 5, where two Republican incumbents lost to Democratic challengers as pro-Trump attorneys Lin Wood and Sidney Powell urged conservatives to boycott the election. The outcome put the U.S. Senate in Democratic control.

NBC News reported:

Hice objected to Georgia's electoral vote being counted on Jan. 6, even after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, delaying the vote count. In a since-deleted Instagram post on the morning of Jan. 6, Hice wrote, "This is our 1776 moment."

A spokeswoman for Hice told the Journal-Constitution the next day that the post was "our way of highlighting the electoral objection," and they removed it "when we realized it could be misconstrued as supporting those acting violently yesterday and storming the Capitol."

What's the background?

Raffensperger and other Georgia Republican officials — including Gov. Brian Kemp — fell under attack from Trump after the secretary of state "rejected pressure from Mr. Trump to overturn the state's results and certified President [Joe] Biden as the winner of the presidential race after a hand recount," CBS News reported.

The feud between Trump and Raffensperger was ratcheted up to a new level after a leaked recording of a Jan. 2 phone call between the two was released by The Washington Post. During the conversation, Trump urged the secretary of state "to find 11,780 votes, which is more than we have. Because we won the state."

Raffensperger's office revealed last month that it had launched an investigation into the call, which critics of the former president say shows he was illegally trying to change the results of the election.

Trump disputes that claim, and has repeatedly accused Raffensperger of circumventing the state legislature by signing a consent decree with Democratic groups regarding signature matching in the state.

The former president says the decree "should be deemed invalid, and the election result changed."

Gabriel Sterling, another Republican and Raffensperger's voting systems implementation manager, says all the consent decree did was "send out an 'official election bulletin,' telling people, 'hey follow our rules and how we already do a signature match.'"

According to WXIA-TV, Sterling argues "the only substantive change in policy — a policy subject to the discretion of the Secretary of State's Office — was how people should be given notice if their ballot was rejected."