The Artemis II astronauts’ journey to the moon and back landed them at the White House Oval Office on Wednesday afternoon — standing by while President Donald Trump talked UFOs, the Space Force and the Iran war.
Sporting blue jackets, NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen stood behind Trump at the Resolute Desk — which had a gold-plated model of the moon on it — as White House reporters were brought in. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman also stood alongside the astronauts.
“I don’t know how they do it. I wouldn’t want to do it, but it takes people like this to make our country great,” Trump said.
Trump briefly ran through his own space-related priorities, some at the prompting of reporters: touting his move to start the military branch Space Force in his first term, reiterating his intention to release classified material related to UFOs and saying there was a “good shot” that another person would walk on the moon during his presidency.
“We don’t like to say definitely, because then you say, ‘Oh, we failed,’” Trump said. “So we have a good shot. We’ve authorized it.”
Isaacman confirmed efforts to send a person to the moon’s surface again in 2028, as well as detailing continued plans to launch an Artemis III mission in 2027. He also said NASA headquarters will remain in Washington, DC, calling it an “advantage” to be in the nation’s capital — an assertion Trump agreed with.
A gold moon gifted to the White House by Isaacman and a model of the Space Reactor-1 Freedom Rocket on loan from NASA were visible on Trump’s desk during the visit, according to NASA spokesperson George Alderman.
The rest of the event became a somewhat freewheeling press conference, a common risk during most of Trump’s public events these days. About two weeks ago, Trump welcomed a DoorDash delivery woman to the White House in an effort to tout his party’s tax cuts. The woman then stood next to Trump while he answered questions about the Iran war and tried to solicit her opinion on transgender women playing in women’s sports.
Trump didn’t ask the astronauts to weigh in on his comments Wednesday, but they stood by with carefully neutral expressions as he praised a Supreme Court decision to limit the Voting Rights Act, insisted that former FBI Director James Comey had threatened his life with a social media post and said the end of wars in Ukraine and Iran would probably happen on a “similar timetable.”
There were parallels to the mission itself, as some of the Artemis milestones were eclipsed by the war with Iran.
After the astronauts marked the achievement of traveling the furthest distance from Earth — as they circled around the dark side of the moon on April 6 — much of the news coverage the next day focused on Trump’s remarkable threat on Iran the next morning. He wrote: “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”
Trump had watched the launch alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as photographed by the White House, and the president had touted the mission as an example of American dominance.
“We are WINNING, in Space, on Earth, and everywhere in between — Economically, Militarily, and now, BEYOND THE STARS. Nobody comes close!” Trump wrote on Truth Social before liftoff.
When the astronauts successfully returned, Trump congratulated them on their “spectacular” feat and invited the crew to the White House.
“We’ll be doing it again and then, next step, Mars!” Trump said.
Source: CNN
--Agencies
