Last Moonwalkers: New Lunar Age

0:00It's March 31st. I'm Cory with the story, and this is Global News Today, your AI-powered world briefing. Jim Lovell's death marks a big moment in space history. The Apollo 13 commander, famous for saving his crew after that explosion back in 1970, was one of just six left who'd gone beyond. Earth orbit to the Moon's neighborhood. Now only five remain, Buzz Aldrin, Charles Duke, Fred Hase, Harrison Schmidt, and David Scott. NASA's pushing hard with the Artemis program to get humans back on the lunar surface this decade, but the first crew trip around the Moon got pushed from 2025 to 2026. China plans boots on the ground by 2030, fresh off landing a probe on the far side last June. These guys became legends for their guts and smarts. Aldrin, second on the Moon in 1969, punched a conspiracy theorist years later and still pushes for Mars at 94. Duke, the youngest moonwalker at 36 on Apollo 16, was the voice on the ground for Apollo

1:0211's landing. Hase survived the Apollo 13's near disaster without touching down, while Schmidt, a geologist on the last mission in 1972, brought science to the steps. Scott commanded Apollo 15, first to drive a rover across the surface, ed up to eight miles per hour. Private outfits like SpaceX and Boeing face setbacks with explosions and stranded crews, but the fires lit, who plant that next footprint stays the big question as we gear up for the new lunar age.