Venue gets mixed reviews as National Spelling Bee returns to DC ahead of White House UFC event

WASHINGTON (AP) — After 15 years at a convention center in suburban Maryland, the Scripps National Spelling Bee moved this year to a grand stage befitting the stakes of the competition: Constitution Hall, Washington's largest dedicated concert venue.

Not everyone at this week's competition appreciates the change.

“I feel like they should not have moved it. The old venue was better. Because it's a bit of a hassle, getting on the bus and going there and then coming back,” said 14-year-old Yahya Mohammed, a three-time speller from Hoffman Estates, Illinois. “The old venue was more spacious, and it feels kind of isolated in the hotel.”

As the National Spelling Bee began with Tuesday's preliminary rounds, spellers and their families marveled at the historical significance of their new venue and the nearby cultural opportunities while also dealing with logistical hurdles: crowded hallways, limited dining options and shuttle bus rides to and from their hotel.

Built in 1929 by the Daughters of the American Revolution, Constitution Hall sits a few blocks from the Washington Monument and the White House. Spellers and their families are staying at the nearby J.W. Marriott, a favored haunt of lobbyists and interest groups, and the quickest route to the competition venue would normally be a stroll across the Ellipse, the grassy expanse south of the Executive Mansion.

However, the Ellipse is surrounded by temporary fencing and security checkpoints as crews construct an outdoor octagon on the South Lawn of the White House for UFC Freedom 250, a June 14 event timed for President Donald Trump's 80th birthday and marking the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding.

“Two very disparate forms of entertainment,” said Rajeev Malhotra of Boston, the father of speller Rajeev Malhotra, describing the bee and the mixed martial arts extravaganza.

Security was beefed up at the hall, with guards and metal detectors stationed at every entrance and explosive-sniffing dogs patrolling the hallways. Three blocks away and three days earlier, a man opened fire at a White House security checkpoint, injuring a bystander before he was fatally shot by Secret Service officers.

At the prior venue, the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in Oxon Hill, Maryland, spellers moved freely throughout the building, roaming between their hotel rooms, the ballroom that housed the competition stage and a massive food court where they grabbed quick meals between last-minute study sessions.

“Last year was better,” said Arpit Aggarwal of Columbia, Missouri, whose daughter, Ananya, is competing for the second time. “Everything was in one place.”

“It's an adjustment,” Ananya's mom, Deepti Bahl, said diplomatically.

Other spellers appreciated the buzz of gathering downtown, saying it was more appropriate for a national competition. The bee began in 1925 and was held at a series of Washington hotels before it moved to the suburbs in 2011.

“I just love being here, right next to the National Mall. You can see the Smithsonian, you can see the Jefferson Memorial. It's such a lively and unique city and I love being in the heart of it,” said three-time speller Oliver Halkett, a 14-year-old from Los Angeles. “There's so much history, there's so much culture. The memorials and the museums are fascinating to go to.”

Speller Andie Seavey of Fairbanks, Alaska, and her mom, Kristin, went to see the musical “The Great Gatsby” at the National Theater next door to the hotel.

After 80 spellers were eliminated Tuesday during onstage spelling and vocabulary rounds, the remaining 167 competitors reconvened at the hotel for a high-stakes written test that determined the 100 or so who would move on to Wednesday morning's quarterfinals. The competition concludes Thursday night.

Last year, Faizan Zaki won the National Spelling Bee even though he misspelled a word and heard the dreaded bell rung by head judge Mary Brooks. In fact, he knew it after a few letters. He stopped spelling and told Brooks, “Just ring the bell.”

Faizan's flub let his two remaining competitors back in, since all three misspelled during the round.

Kushi Gottimukkala of Morrisville, North Carolina, is one of a few spellers competing this year who know what that feels like.

At her regional bee, sponsored by the NFL's Carolina Panthers, it was down to Kushi and two other spellers for the final spot at nationals. She misspelled “anchialine,” and she thought it was over, only to see the other two spellers mess up.

Kushi rode the emotional roller coaster and ultimately got through.

“I was still thinking about the mistake, but I was also really grateful that I got a second chance, and so I took that into consideration and decided to focus on my next word,” she said.

Spellers have to prepare for the possibility that missing a word isn't necessarily the end.

Oliver Halkett, too, has competed in a bee where he got a word wrong but wasn't eliminated. He battled through the disappointment by focusing only on the word in front of him.

“It's a peculiar situation, but I think, above all, mental clarity is so important, especially in those latter rounds,” he said. “I close my eyes and do some deep breathing and I visualize the word, and it's just me and the word. That's how you have to approach every single word.

“Treat every word as if it's your first and last word.”

Ben Nuckols has covered the Scripps National Spelling Bee since 2012. Follow his work here.

Yahya Mohammed, 14, of Hoffman Estates, Ill., competes during the first preliminary round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, Tuesday, May 26, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)

Oliver Halkett, 14, Los Angeles, Calif., competes during the first preliminary round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, Tuesday, May 26, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)

Keona-Dannette Osae-Twum, 13, of Waldwick, N.J.,, spells her word as she competes during the preliminary round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee at DAR Constitution Hall, Tuesday, May 26, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Logan Cox, 14, of Homestead, Fla., spells his word as he competes during the preliminary round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee at DAR Constitution Hall, Tuesday, May 26, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Victoria Li, 12, of Eastvale, Calif., spells his word during the preliminary round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee at DAR Constitution Hall, Tuesday, May 26, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA is already ordering landers, rovers and drones for a sprawling moon base, less than two months after the Artemis II's record-breaking lunar flyaround.

The space agency outlined the first phase of its moon base plans on Tuesday, awarding hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts to four U.S. companies.

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin will provide a pair of landers to deliver moon buggies to the lunar surface, at a spot near the moon’s south pole. These so-called lunar terrain vehicles will be built by Astrolab and Lunar Outpost. Firefly Aerospace, which landed successfully on the moon last year, will deliver the first drones to the moon.

All this hardware is ideally supposed to arrive before the first Artemis astronauts land on the moon, planned for as early as 2028.

During April's Artemis II mission, four astronauts flew around the moon, traveling deeper into space than the Apollo moon crews did during the late 1960s and early 1970s. For next year's Artemis III, another team of astronauts will practice docking NASA's Orion capsule in orbit around Earth with the lunar landers being developed for crews by Blue Origin and Elon Musk's SpaceX.

NASA is targeting Artemis III for mid-2027, with a landing by two astronauts following as soon as 2028. The moon base's second phase, from 2029 into the early 2030s, will start building up the permanent infrastructure, including a power grid. As for when the base will be ready to support astronauts for extended periods in specialized permanent habitats, that's expected sometime in the 2030s, during the third phase.

“Then we'll be able to say, 'Hey, we're permanently here and we're not giving it up,'” said NASA's moon base program executive Carlos Garcia-Galan.

Garcia-Galan envisions a moon base sprawling over hundreds of square miles, with a perimeter marked by drones, dubbed MoonFall, stationed at the corners.

Isaacman said these territory markers are meant to be respectful of other countries' spacecraft and equipment that might be nearby. He expects reciprocity in the matter.

The goal of the moon base is to encourage a lunar economy while conducting scientific research and laying the foundation for a Mars expedition, Isaacman stressed.

“For those waiting patiently, the grand return is close at hand and we will not slow down,” Isaacman said. “We are really just getting started.”

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

FILE - In this photo provided by NASA and captured by the Artemis II crew from lunar orbit, the Moon eclipses the Sun on April 6, 2026. (NASA via AP, File)