NASA chief on Artemis III and the new space race

[0:00] NASA is preparing for its next Artemis mission. [0:03] The largest section of the rocket for the Artemis 3 mission arrived at the Kennedy Space Center earlier this week. [0:08] NASA says Artemis 3 will test how the Orion spacecraft docks with commercial moon landers in Earth's orbit. [0:14] And NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman is here for more on that. [0:18] Administrator Isaacman, thanks so much for coming on. [0:20] What an exciting time for NASA. [0:21] Absolutely, absolutely. [0:22] We're back in the business sending astronauts to the moon again. [0:24] So we just watched this historic return to the moon with Artemis 2 where they went around it. [0:31] What did NASA learn from that mission and how will you apply those lessons to the next launch? [0:36] Absolutely. [0:36] So Artemis 2 was the first time we put human beings, astronauts, on that rocket. [0:42] So SLS itself, that's 8.8 million pounds of thrust that accelerated them to nearly 25,000 miles an hour around the moon. [0:49] So that was a test. [0:51] And then the spacecraft, the Orion spacecraft, never put humans in that before. [0:55] That was the first time we installed the ECLSS or life support systems in it. [0:58] So over those 10 days, we learned an awful lot about the performance of the rocket, the spacecraft. [1:03] We even had the crew do some manual piloting of it. [1:06] And this is all important to inform subsequent missions where they're going to need to rendezvous with the landers. [1:12] That's where Artemis 3 comes in. [1:13] And then, of course, once we learn a lot about the landers, that's when you go for the landing. [1:17] That's Artemis 4. [1:18] So how does that process work, testing the landers? [1:21] And why is that part so important? [1:22] Well, I think, well, first of all, we are drawing on the playbook that worked incredibly well for NASA throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, [1:30] which is we didn't just jump right to Apollo 11. [1:32] We had the whole Mercury program, the Gemini program. [1:34] There were a lot of Apollo missions before Apollo 11. [1:37] And each step along the way, we wanted to learn. [1:39] So Artemis 2, we send them around the moon. [1:41] It's very Apollo 7, 8-like. [1:44] We had an opportunity to learn a lot about the rocket and the vehicle. [1:46] Now we need to learn about the landers. [1:48] But you don't want to learn about the landers when you're three days away from Earth out on the moon. [1:51] You want to learn about them when you're hours away from the water. [1:54] So this is what we did on Apollo 9 in the 1960s. [1:57] Orion spacecraft will rendezvous dock with the two different landers. [2:01] We'll test out the interoperability. [2:02] It's going to be a heck of a show. [2:04] You're talking about three of the most powerful rockets in the world. [2:06] They're going to launch in relatively quick succession. [2:08] And then that should give us the data necessary to inform, again, Artemis 4 and Artemis 5, [2:13] where we put astronauts back on the moon. [2:15] So what more can you tell us about the timeline of the launch and when you'll announce the crew? [2:19] So I believe we're actually not far away from announcing the Artemis 3 crew. [2:23] Because when you think about your timing, when you're a year plus out from a mission, [2:27] that's when you really want to get them in training. [2:28] Now I will say the entire astronaut corps has been spending a lot of time. [2:31] I mean, they're preparing for this moment almost their whole lives. [2:33] But we do want to get them into a very structured training program specific to the Artemis 3 objectives. [2:39] That should begin very soon. [2:41] And then you're talking sometime mid to late 2027 is when Artemis 3 will launch itself. [2:46] And again, short period of time, you're going to see three of the most powerful rockets in the world launch. [2:51] And then we're going to try and protect for up to two opportunities in 2028 for the actual landing itself. [2:57] The president's 2027 budget request released earlier this month [3:00] proposes a $6 billion cut to NASA. [3:04] You have said that NASA has the money it needs. [3:06] Does that still hold with this budget proposal? [3:09] Well, it does. [3:10] And I think the reason why is you can't just look at the president's budget request in isolation. [3:14] The Working Family Tax Cut Act, formerly known as the One Big Beautiful Bill last year, [3:19] provided a historic investment in NASA, a $10 billion one-time plus-up. [3:24] I mean, we haven't seen an investment or a commitment in America's space program like that since the Kennedy era. [3:29] So you have to take the One Big Beautiful Bill plus-up, the FY26 appropriations, [3:34] and the FY27 president's budget request, and that absolutely gives us the resources, [3:39] not just to put American astronauts back on the moon, to build the moon base in parallel, [3:43] plus make investments in the next giant leap capabilities. [3:46] Like for the first time ever, we're going to launch a nuclear-powered interplanetary spacecraft in 2028 as well. [3:52] So we absolutely have the mandate. [3:53] We have the resources. [3:54] We just need to execute. [3:55] The Planetary Society calls the budget request extinction level, [3:59] that that's the level of damage it could do to the science program. [4:04] They say it would dismantle climate monitoring, abandon Venus exploration, [4:08] cut research funding across the board. [4:09] What's your response to that? [4:10] I would say that I think an extinction level event is an extreme exaggeration of the reality. [4:16] America's space program's budget is greater than every other civil space agency in the world combined. [4:24] The proposed science budget for NASA is greater than every other civil space agency science budget in the world combined. [4:31] We're launching the most powerful exploration asset in history, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, [4:37] the end of this year, 100 times the field of view of Hubble, 1,000 times the scan rate. [4:41] We're launching a nuclear-powered octocopter to Saturn's moon of Titan in 2028. [4:46] We're landing another rover on Mars in 2028. [4:48] We're launching that nuclear spacecraft mission. [4:50] We will accept no gaps from Earth science at all. [4:53] We have lots of observation assets up there that are contributing to Earth science data. [4:57] We only inhabit one planet presently. [4:59] We're going to learn as much as we can about it, and we're going to launch new satellites as well in the future. [5:02] You've talked about winning the space race. [5:04] What does that look like, and why is it so important to you for the U.S. to be the first to do these things? [5:10] Well, I'd say every president for 35 years has promised America's grand return to the moon. [5:16] As taxpayers, we spent over $100 billion in pursuit of that endeavor. [5:21] It wasn't until President Trump in his first term actually created the Artemis program that we had an achievable pathway back. [5:29] And then, of course, my first day on the job, the national space policy that said pick up where Apollo 17 left off, but don't just do it for the flags and rocks this time. [5:37] Build the enduring presence. [5:39] So I think after all those resources and all those promises, we owe it to the taxpayers and the American people. [5:44] But there's everything we can learn from an economic perspective, the scientific value of being on the moon itself, [5:51] the technical proving ground for the skills necessary someday to launch a crude mission to Mars and bring them back. [5:56] And then there's all the inspiration that you get out of it. [5:59] I mean, how many how many children right now are going to dress up as astronauts for Halloween after the Artemis 2 mission? [6:04] Imagine what happens after those NASA astronauts step foot off the lander, return to the lunar surface. [6:09] I mean, I told you mine we're watching. [6:11] I'm out of time. [6:12] How competitive is it right now to want to get on Artemis 4? [6:16] I would say that there are a lot of astronauts in the NASA astronaut corps that are energized right now to contribute, [6:21] whether it's Artemis 3, 4 and 5, because they know when we go back to the moon this time, we're going back to stay. [6:26] All right. [6:26] NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, we appreciate your time today. [6:29] Thank you. [6:30] Thank you. [6:30] Thank you.