NASA administrator says Artemis II’s success wouldn’t exist without Trump

“I want to be very clear, we would not be in this moment with Artemis II if it weren’t for President Trump,” Isaacman told Fox. “We would certainly not have an achievable path now to return to the lunar surface and build that permanent 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 repeatedly, Build a moon base“We’re doing other things like nuclear power and propulsion so that one day American astronauts can plant the stars and stripes on Mars,” Isaacman added.

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NASA’s Artemis II moon rocket lifts off from Launch Pad 39-B at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on April 1, 2026. (Chris O’Meara/AP)

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

The launch goal is to orbit the moon and return to Earth, landing in San Diego sometime this week.

This photo provided by NASA astronaut and Artemis 2 commander Reed Wiseman looks out one of the windows of the Orion spacecraft’s main cabin, looking down at Earth, as the crew travels toward the moon on Thursday, April 2, 2026. (NASA via AP) (NASA via AP)

“In the next 24 hours or so, they will pass behind the far side of the Moon, and these four astronauts will have traveled farther from Earth than any human has ever done, about 250,000 miles,” Easman explained. “We are testing the spacecraft through all its steps, testing its various systems, including manual control.

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Isaacman said that the spacecraft was “performing better than we expected” before launch, and that the astronauts would soon begin their return journey to Earth once they passed the far side of the moon.

The NASA director successfully compared Artemis II Apollo programs Which witnessed humanity landing on the moon in the 1960s and 1970s, and noted the huge improvement in technological capabilities that NASA has access to today.

This image from video provided by NASA shows the Artemis II crew, from left, Canadian astronaut and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen, Commander Reed Wiseman, mission specialist Christina Koch, and pilot Victor Glover as they speak with NASA Mission Control in a video conference as they head to the moon, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (NASA via AP) (NASA/AP)

“It’s not even a close comparison,” Isaacman said. “The operator consoles or the flight controllers have multiple screens, and a lot of computing power available to them now. I mean there’s certainly a military here supporting NASA, or a military at NASA supporting this mission, but not the hundreds of thousands of people that they would have had during the Apollo era who would have had to join this massive endeavor.”

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“That’s why when we pick up Where Apollo 17 left “We are embarking on this mission,” Isaacman added. “It is not about returning to the Moon to plant science and leave footprints, but to build a permanent presence, to build a lunar base where we will turn the South Pole of the Moon into a scientific and technological testing ground for the capabilities that we will need to master.”

“One day we can send astronauts to Mars and they can come home and tell us about it.”

This image provided by NASA shows a view of Earth taken by NASA astronaut and Artemis II commander Reed Wiseman from the window of the Orion spacecraft after completing an injection burn across the moon on April 2, 2026. (NASA via AP) (NASA)

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

When asked what this mission means to him personally, Isaacman told Fox News Digital that he credits NASA’s workforce and the team behind him for the success the space agency has seen with this ongoing mission and those yet to come.

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While Isaacman was quick to praise the team, he also said all eyes should be on Artemis III missionwhich is set for mid-2027 to test the docking capabilities of what will ultimately be an attempt to return humanity to the lunar surface in 2028.

“For everyone, we have to start working on Artemis 3,” Isaacman explained. “We go back to the Apollo era, Apollo 10, where these astronauts were orbiting the moon, just miles above the surface, and two months later, Apollo 11 was launched where Neil and Buzz walked on the moon. That means we should be able to do multiple world-changing missions almost in parallel.”