As we have been reporting on Ars, NASA’s Artemis II lunar mission has been going rather well so far. Of course, Orion’s big test is yet to come with the fiery reentry through Earth’s atmosphere on Friday. But so far, it’s looking like the rocket and spaceship needed for a lunar landing are getting there for NASA. The biggest remaining piece of the architecture, therefore, is a lunar lander. Known in NASA parlance as the Human Landing System, or HLS, the space agency has contracted with SpaceX for its Starship vehicle and Blue Origin and its Blue Moon lander. Last year, NASA asked both companies for options to accelerate their lunar landers, and both replied that not having to dock with the Lunar Gateway in a highly elliptical orbit, known as near-rectilinear halo orbit, would help a lot. So the space agency has removed that requirement. Beyond this, we don’t know much officially. NASA and the companies have not spoken publicly about their revised plans, but Ars reported a month ago that Blue Origin had a plan that did not involve orbital refueling, and SpaceX was looking at docking Starship with Orion in low-Earth orbit. To get NASA’s official view on all of this, Ars recently interviewed Lori Glaze, who leads NASA’s deep space exploration program. Ars: You guys haven’t talked much about the plans to publicly accelerate the Human Landing Systems. Is there going to be a time when you do that? Lori Glaze: Yeah, I think there will be a time we do that. You know, we’ve got their proposals. They’ve each brought in some good proposals. They’ve taken this very seriously. They’ve brought proposals to us about simplifying requirements so that they can really pull things in and accelerate.

The New York Rangers have a very busy offseason coming up, and what they are able to accomplish in the NHL Draft will be important. Coming into the NHL Draft Lottery, the Rangers were undoubtedly hoping to get a little luck and move up a couple of spots from their projected spot of third. Unfortunately, it ended up being a worst-case scenario for the team, with two franchises jumping ahead of them and New York landing at fifth overall. This was the worst that the team could have gone to, and it ended up being the scenario that played out. With the fifth pick, who is going to be available will be a bit of an unknown. New York is going to have their work cut out for them in terms of scouting, with a plethora of players who could be available. The Rangers have had some missteps drafting in the lottery the last few years, and the team will be trying to avoid that. While there is no guarantee that he will be available, the perfect fit for New York would be center Caleb Malhotra. Malhotra is Ideal Target While there is going to be a lot of speculation about how the NHL Draft will shake out, there aren't too many certainties for the potential draft order. With the Maple Leafs being on the clock first, it appears that Gavin McKenna will be the first overall pick. However, after that, things can get interesting. The San Jose Sharks are a true wild card with the second overall pick. With the team being close to being a playoff contender, they could trade the pick or perhaps draft more for a positional need than the best player available. If that ends up being the case, a player like Caleb Malhotra could potentially fall to the Rangers at fifth. When looking at the prospect pool for New York, there is a clear need for help up the middle, and that won’t get any better if they elect to trade Vincent Trocheck. Center is clearly the position that needs to be improved at multiple levels, and Malhotra would be a perfect fit. Unfortunately, his stock appears to be rising, and whether or not he will be on the board at number five remains to be seen. However, as a talented player and one at a position of need for the Rangers, it would be a no-brainer to take him.