NASA chief Jared Isaacman says Artemis II would not be possible 'if it wasn't for President Trump'

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the success of the historic Artemis II mission currently underway would not be possible "if it wasn't for President Trump," as the Orion spacecraft is set to pass beyond the far side of the moon in the next 24 hours. 

Isaacman detailed the mission's progress, how technology has assisted in the success of Artemis II so far, and the role that President Donald Trump has played in the Artemis program during an interview with Fox News Digital. 

"I want to be incredibly clear, we would not be at this moment right now with Artemis II if it wasn't for President Trump," Isaacman told Fox. "And we certainly would not have an achievable path now to get back to the lunar surface and build that enduring presence."

"On my first day on the job during President Trump's second term, he gave us a national space policy, a mandate to go to the moon with frequency, build the moon base, and do the other things like nuclear power and propulsion so someday American astronauts can plant the Stars and Stripes on Mars," Isaacman added.

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The Artemis II mission successfully launched off Cape Canaveral, Florida, last week, a mission that will send humans the farthest distance from the Earth in history. 

The goal of the launch is to circle the moon and return to Earth, landing in San Diego some time this week. 

"In the next 24 hours or so, they're gonna pass behind the far side of the moon, these four astronauts will have traveled farther away from Earth than any humans ever before, about 250,000 miles away," Isaasman explained. "We are putting the spacecraft through all its paces, testing out its various systems, including manual controls."

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Isaacman said the spacecraft is "performing better than we would have expected" before launch, and that the astronauts will soon begin their journey back to Earth once they have passed over the far side of the moon. 

The NASA administrator compared Artemis II to the success of the Apollo programs that saw mankind land on the moon in the 1960s and 1970s, and noted the vast improvement in technological capabilities that NASA has access to today.

"It is not even a close comparison," Isaacman said. "The operator consoles or flight controllers have multiple screens, lots of computing power that's available to them right now. I mean there is certainly an army here supporting NASA, or an army at NASA that's supporting this mission, but not the hundreds of thousands of people that you would have had during the Apollo era that had to bubble into that enormous endeavor."

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"That's why when we pick up where Apollo 17 left off with this mission," Isaacman added, "it is not to return to the moon to plant the flag and leave the footprints, but to build an enduring presence, to build a moon base where we will turn the south pole of the moon into a scientific and technological proving ground for the capabilities we will need to master."

"Someday we can send astronauts to Mars and they can come back home to tell us about it."

The 43-year-old billionaire was sworn in as NASA administrator last December. A longtime space enthusiast, Isaacman previously commanded the first-ever commercial spacewalk in September 2024.

When asked about what this mission means to him personally, Isaacman told Fox News Digital he credited the NASA workforce and the team behind him for the success the space agency has seen on this mission and those yet to come.

While Isaacman was quick to credit the team, he also said sights need to be set on the Artemis III mission, which is set for mid-2027 to test docking capabilities for what will ultimately be an attempt to return humanity to the surface of the moon in 2028.

"For everybody else, we got to start working on Artemis III," Isaacman explained. "You go back to the Apollo era, Apollo 10, as those astronauts were orbiting in lunar orbit, just miles above the surface, two months later, Apollo 11 launched where Neil and Buzz walked on the moon. That means we have to be able to do multiple world-changing missions in near parallel."