Artemis II ‘would not be possible’ without Trump, NASA chief Jared Isaacman says

WASHINGTON, DC: NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman has credited President Donald Trump for helping make the historic Artemis II mission possible.

He said the expedition would not be possible “if it wasn't for President Trump”, a few days after four astronauts went on a flyby around the Moon to examine how Orion spacecraft’s systems work in a deep space environment.

NASA chief Jared Isaacman says Artemis II would not be possible without Trump

Speaking with Fox News Digital, Isaacman said, “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. And we certainly would not have an achievable path now to get back to the lunar surface and build that enduring presence.”

He went on to explain how the POTUS was a force behind the mission.

“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 noted.

Artemis II mission tests Orion spacecraft systems in deep space

Artemis II mission — crewed by NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, as well as Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen — launched on April 1 from Kennedy Space Center. It’s a ten day mission, which is expected to end on April 11.

“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,” Isaacman revealed as he added, “We are putting the spacecraft through all its paces, testing out its various systems, including manual controls.”

The NASA chief also further explained that the spacecraft is “performing better than we would have expected” before launch and added that it will soon return to the earth once the astronauts have crossed the far side of the moon.

Jared Isaacman says modern NASA technology surpasses Apollo-era systems

During the interview, Isaacman talked about the success of the Apollo programs and the advancement in technology compared to the 1960s and the 1970s.

He said, “It is not even a close comparison. 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.”

“That's why when we pick up where Apollo 17 left off with this mission 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,” he added.

NASA begins preparations for Artemis III after Artemis II mission

Isaacman also shed light on the future missions of NASA. He shared, “For everybody else, we got to start working on Artemis III. 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.”