What is J Mission?

In the Summer of 1971, NASA sent the Apollo 15 mission to the Hadley-Apennine region of the lunar surface. This mission was the program’s first “J Mission” — an alphabetical designation for excursions whose focus was no longer on the mere feasibility of crewed exploration of the moon, but rather, on figuring out how to do something real with that opportunity.

The Apollo J Missions yielded some of the most significant scientific breakthroughs of the entire program, even as popular interest in the moon landings themselves waned.

But right now, spaceflight is more active than it has been in a generation. There are real commercial space companies producing technology and ideas that would have seemed like science fiction even 10 years ago. And NASA itself has committed to returning to the moon, potentially even to stay.

This site isn’t about news tips, technical analyses, or trade reporting. Instead, it’s about spaceflight as culture: We’ll explore the state of the commercial and civil space industries, the eccentric characters within them, and the ways this entire sector can and will change the world for all of us.

We’ll look at what companies are saying about their work. We’ll look at the reality of their work. We’ll look at how closely those match up, or don’t.

But mostly, we’ll be tracking how much, if at all, these people, agencies, and companies are really pushing us toward the dream of a sustainable cislunar economy, where people live, work, and play in space. Follow along: The next decade is gonna be a big one.

J Mission is written by Dakota Gardner. Read the columns on Longform, follow the numbers on The Indexes, or subscribe at jmission.substack.com.