Seems like everyone’s been going there recently. The route was particularly busy yesterday: On the same day a historic mission completed its lunar voyage, another began its moonbound journey.

Let’s start with the touchdown. NASA’s Orion capsule cannonballed back into the atmosphere yesterday, successfully completing a 25-day mission around the moon. And we actually mean cannonballed: Orion reentered the Earth’s atmosphere at nearly 25,000 miles per hour, or 32x the speed of sound, while sweating through outside temperatures of about 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. But two sets of parachutes helped slow it down to a gentle 20 mph when it splashed down in the Pacific Ocean.

It’s a relief that everything went according to plan, because the stakes are ~astronomical~: Humans are trying to get to the lunar surface for the first time in 50 years. Orion was a part of the first mission stemming from NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to plop humans on the moon as soon as 2025.

• This mission, known as Artemis I, was uncrewed, but NASA is hoping to launch Artemis II, with humans on board, by 2024.
• Artemis III is the Holy Grail: That’s when NASA will attempt to land humans on the moon again. But given all the moving parts (a lunar lander to be provided by SpaceX, new lunar space suits), it’ll be a shock if it happens by 2025.

Fun fact: Orion splashed down 50 years to the day that astronauts last landed on the moon.

And who went to the moon yesterday?

Hours before Orion splashed down, a SpaceX rocket blasted off carrying a lunar lander made by Japanese company ispace. If the ispace vehicle makes a successful landing, it’ll be the first time a private company accomplished the feat. To date, only the US, China, and Russia have successfully completed what’s called “soft landings” on the moon.

Ispace was formed in order to compete in the Google Lunar X Prize competition, but its ambitions have ballooned since then. Now, it’s aiming to create an “economically viable ecosystem” around the moon, its founder and CEO Takeshi Hakamada told CNBC.

But this historic landing attempt won’t happen for months. While Orion took just five days to reach the moon, ispace’s mission is taking the “avoid tolls” route on Google Maps to conserve energy. It’s not expected to land until early April 2023.

Twitter will launch its verification system…again. Twitter Blue is maybe, finally rolling out for good today. For $8/month if purchased on the web or $11/month if bought via Apple’s App Store, Twitter users will be able to add a verification checkmark to their profile and gain access to other features, such as the ability to edit tweets. The last time Twitter tried to launch Blue in November, it was chaos: Among the shenanigans, one account posing as Eli Lilly & Co. falsely tweeted that it was making insulin free, leading to a $15 billion drop in market cap for the company. Twitter said it’s installed new safeguards to prevent rampant impersonation.

Lockerbie suspect detained by US. The FBI arrested a Libyan intelligence operative accused of making the bomb that brought down a Pan Am flight over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, killing 270 people. The suspect, Abu Agela Masud Kheir Al-Marimi, will be the first Libyan intelligence official charged for his role in the attack to stand trial in a US courtroom (two others were charged, but Libya would not send them to the US or the UK).

Winter weather wallops the West. A huge storm dumped feet of snow and unleashed fierce winds across the Sierra Nevada this weekend, closing a 70-mile stretch of eastbound I-80 “due to zero visibility.” And while West Coasters will relish the fresh pow on their ski slopes, the storm will trudge along from west to east during the week, developing into a major winter storm in the High Central Plains and Upper Midwest by Wednesday. And yes, Northeasterners, we’ll also acknowledge you had miserable weather this weekend too.

Morocco continued its improbable, historic run at the World Cup by defeating Portugal on Saturday, becoming the first African country to ever make the tournament’s semifinal round.

The team’s success has galvanized not only Moroccans living in the country, but also the estimated 5 million living abroad—which is where the majority of the team grew up.

Fourteen of Morocco’s 26 players were born abroad, the highest share of any team competing in the World Cup. One of its stars, Hakim Ziyech, was born in the Netherlands, and another, Achraf Hakimi, was born in Spain. So how can they play for Morocco? Under FIFA rules, players must be citizens of a country and check off certain requirements showing they have a “clear connection” to it, such as a parent or grandparent who was born there.

Big picture: The share of foreign-born players at the World Cup has been surging in recent decades, shaking up the traditional power dynamics associated with global soccer, Vox reports. At the first World Cup in 1930, 5% of players were born in a different country than they represented. This year, the share is 16.5% (about one in every six).

African countries have been especially aggressive in recruiting players from abroad. Of the 38 French-born players not playing on the French team this World Cup, for example, all but four represent African countries.

Speaking of France…it will try to end Morocco’s Cinderella story in Wednesday’s semifinal. The winner of that game will play the winner of Argentina vs. Croatia, which is taking place on Tuesday.

The Fed’s last meeting of the year. Jerome Powell and his central banker posse will meet for the final time in 2022, and, as has been the case during the previous six meetings, they’re expected to jack up interest rates. This rate bump is likely to be only 50 basis points, though, down from the 75 bps increases announced in the previous four meetings.

SBF will testify before lawmakers. At least he said he would. The former FTX CEO wrote on Twitter last week that he’d testify at the House Financial Services Committee hearing about his exchange’s implosion on Tuesday. It’s unclear whether SBF will be traveling from his Bahamas residence to DC for the grilling, or if he will videoconference in.

Avatar 2 is finally here. The sequel to the highest-grossing movie in history will hit theaters on Friday. Its runtime is three hours and 10 minutes, about the duration of an NFL game, but director James Cameron said it’s necessary because there are “more characters to service.”

Everything else:

• Lawmakers face a Friday deadline to avoid a partial government shutdown.
• Hanukkah begins on Sunday evening.
• The World Cup Final will be held on Sunday.

Stat: While a $16 salad is never justified, it may be a little more…understandable right now. Veggie prices in the US have surged 38% in November alone, and are up more than 80% on an annual basis, per a new Labor Department report. The reason? There hasn’t been enough water to grow vegetables due to the megadrought out West. States such as California and Arizona have had their water allotment restricted as authorities try to keep the Colorado River from drying up even further.

Quote: “An American should come home if they can come home.”

David Whelan, the brother of American Paul Whelan who is detained in Russia, told MSNBC yesterday that he thinks President Biden “made the right choice” in securing a deal with Russia to bring Brittney Griner home, even if his brother wasn’t included. US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said that the US offered Russia a deal to bring both Griner and Whelan home, but Russia is treating Whelan’s case “very separately, very distinctly” from Griner’s. In a surprise twist, former President Trump said yesterday that he rejected a deal to bring Whelan home in exchange for Viktor Bout, the arms dealer who the US released for Griner’s freedom.

Read: Your brain does not process information, retrieve knowledge, or store memories. In short: Your brain is not a computer. (Aeon)

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Dive back into the week:

• Shallow dive: Travis Pastrana goes berserk in Florida.
• Medium dive: 25 words that are their own opposites
• Deep dive: Two events that happened in the same year but don’t seem like they would have
• Cannonball: The year explained by charts

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Turntable: There are 36 words just begging to be discovered in today’s puzzle. Find them here.

Holiday music trivia

If you’ve walked into any retail store during the last two weeks, you should ace this holiday music quiz. See how many of the five questions below you can answer correctly.

1. What gift is No. 6 in “The Twelve Days of Christmas”?
2. In what year did Mariah Carey release “All I Want for Christmas Is You”?
3. In Adam Sandler’s “The Chanukah Song,” which singer lights the menorah?
4. Which composer wrote the score to The Nutcracker ballet?
5. Which singer released “Santa Tell Me” in 2014?

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