A Strong Signal During Every Phase: How ITS is Enabling Reliable Communications on the Moon

Almost 57 years after President Richard Nixon’s long-distance telephone call to the Apollo 11 astronauts—via radio—Artemis II marked mankind’s return to the lunar neighborhood. Following through on President Trump’s Executive Order on Ensuring American Space Superiority, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s Institute for Telecommunications Sciences lab has helped to power Americans’ historic return, including by developing a model for understanding how communications signals travel on the Moon and between the Moon and spacecraft. Our return to the Moon is a gateway for future space travel, economic development, and innovation—and U.S. leadership in spectrum innovation is critical to this effort.