New NASA head Jared Isaacman faces his first big test this week with the launch of Artemis, a crucial milestone in the race to beat China and return Americans to the moon.
The stakes have never been higher. Success would earn Isaacman political capital to push his ambitious vision for expanding American spaceflight — and reinvigorate an agency still reeling from a year of internal upheaval.
Isaacman, just three months into leading NASA, is overseeing the agency’s first crewed launch toward the moon in more than 50 years. The Artemis II — an almost 3,000-ton rocket powered by 8.8 million pounds of thrust — is expected to depart Wednesday off the Florida coast to take four astronauts around the moon and back, a major stepping stone to a future lunar landing.
The effort comes after thousands of employees fled the agency last year and the White House proposed steep cuts to NASA’s budget. Isaacman is determined to change the narrative — and meet President Donald Trump’s ambitious timeline to land U.S. astronauts on the lunar surface.
"The Artemis program picks up where Apollo left off," Isaacman told POLITICO’s Dasha Burns in an interview on The Conversation podcast. "Not to return to the moon, to plant the flag and pick up the rocks again, but to build an enduring presence, to build a moon base so we can realize the scientific and economic value of being on the lunar surface."
Pressure is coming all the way from the top. The day Isaacman was sworn into the job, the White House released a directive outlining Trump’s ambitions in space, including a moon landing by 2028 and the creation of a permanent lunar outpost.
“During President Trump’s first term, the Artemis program was formally established to return humanity to the moon,” White House spokesperson Liz Huston said in a statement. “This effort will strengthen American leadership in space, usher in scientific discoveries, and serve as the proving ground for missions to Mars.”
The launch comes as NASA — and the U.S. — desperately need a win.
“If we can do this after what the agency was subjected to in 2025, that’s a hell of an accomplishment,” said a congressional staffer, who was granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive topic. “Isaacman is the quarterback. If all goes well, he will get too much of the credit. If all does not go well, he will shoulder way too much blame for a result caused by institutional decay.”
The Boeing-built Space Launch System rocket will carry Artemis II astronauts into space. They will slingshot around the moon aboard Lockheed Martin’s Orion capsule, which will detach from the larger rocket system. Once Orion has traveled around the moon’s far side, it will return home, reaching a blazing speed of 25,000 miles per hour when it first hits the Earth’s atmosphere — a 10-day roundtrip.
The technology isn’t cheap. The entire Artemis program is estimated to cost almost $100 billion, and the SLS rocket has garnered criticism for its cost overruns and the long delay since its first launch in 2022.
Isaacman, since taking the helm at NASA, has restructured the program to get the rocket flying more frequently, and announced plans for another Artemis test flight next year. A lunar landing would ideally follow in 2028.
Concerns about the slow pace of SLS launches and cost overruns is “rightful criticism,” Isaacman said. That's why NASA is putting measures in place to speed up production and take an active role to get these programs on track.
“We are not gonna sit idly by as schedules are exceeded and budgets are overrun at the expense of the American people and everyone who's excited about the headlines only NASA can make,” he said.
The centerpiece of Isaacman’s new vision for the agency is a moon base. The lunar outpost is expected to cost $30 billion over the next decade — about $3 billion a year.
But his goal may conflict with administration realities. The White House is putting final touches on its 2027 budget request for NASA, which is expected to be released on Friday. The Trump administration last year wanted a 25 percent cut to NASA’s budget. Congress rejected the request with this year’s appropriations law, allocating $24.4 billion for the agency.
Fitting all of NASA’s ambitions into its budget won’t be easy. But if Artemis is successful, it will give the agency “that much more credibility,” said Rep. Mike Haridopolos, (R-Fla.), chair of the House Science, Space, and Technology subcommittee on space and aeronautics.
“This is why it's so important that Artemis II is a success,” he said. “If it's a success, people we’ll see [and] we'll gain even more confidence in both, of course, NASA and its new administrator.”
NASA’s plans to speed up its moon program are also aimed at confronting China, a burgeoning power in space. Beijing has targeted a 2030 moon landing and permanent outpost — setting up a neck-and-neck sprint with the U.S.
Winning that race is paramount, Isaacman said, and will have serious implications for America's place in the world order.
“There isn't a person alive right now that didn't grow up in America where the United States was the overarching leader, the world superpower,” he said. “And, there's a real chance that that could shift in the years ahead.”
NASA officials have said Artemis II is a go for Wednesday, but there’s always a chance the launch is delayed due to technical reasons or weather conditions. It could happen any day until April 6.
The next launch window after that opens on April 30.
The full episode of The Conversation drops Friday: Subscribe on Apple or Spotify.
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