US President Donald Trump said that it is very likely that American astronauts will land on the moon before 2029, when his second term ends. He outlined this position while answering questions from reporters during a meeting with the crew of the Artemis 2 lunar mission in the Oval Office of the White House.
“We have a good chance“, he said, claiming that work in this area is “ahead of schedule“. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman noted that the agency is committed to a “feasible plan“ for landing on the moon.
“We are back on track to launch lunar rockets at a good rate. The Artemis 2 mission just completed a flyby of the moon. In 2027, we will launch Artemis 3, and in 2028, we will maintain two options for landing astronauts on the surface,“ he said.
Commenting on the possibility of moving NASA headquarters from Washington, the American leader noted the advantages of keeping it in its current location. Isaacman stressed that working in the nation's capital allows the space agency's leadership to "engage with all stakeholders to make the right decisions."
Speaking at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on April 28, Isaacman admitted that the United States could lose the lunar race to China unless it makes major changes to its space program. On April 10, he noted that the United States plans to continue lunar missions until it lands on the moon in 2028.
The SLS rocket, carrying the Orion spacecraft, part of the Artemis 2 mission, was launched on April 1 at 6:35 p.m. local time from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA astronauts Reed Weissman, Christina Koch and Victor Glover, along with Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, orbited the Moon during the mission, breaking the record for the farthest distance a human has traveled from Earth. “
On April 10 at 8:07 p.m. Eastern Standard Time “Orion“ touched down in the Pacific Ocean, a few dozen miles off the coast of California.