With 15,000 workers furloughed and funds uncertain, NASA focuses on one mission

NASA's Space Launch System rocket sits on a launchpad at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on Aug. 31, 2022, ahead of the Artemis I test flight. Orlando Sentinel/Getty Images

Some 15,000 NASA employees were sent home this week as a government shutdown began, halting work across much of an agency already grappling with budget cuts and widespread job losses.

But at least one NASA effort appears to be moving full steam ahead: the Artemis program.

With the goal of returning astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time in five decades, the Artemis program has been deemed essential work amid the government shutdown. The exception came as NASA leadership and a bipartisan group of lawmakers have made it clear they view beating China to the moon as a national security imperative.

“China