NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said Tuesday on Newsmax that the Artemis II mission remains on track for launch April 1, with the four astronauts healthy and the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft in good condition.
Isaacman, who had just met with the crew hours earlier, told "The Record With Greta Van Susteren" that weather conditions were also favorable.
"As of right now, the SLS rocket, the Orion spacecraft on top of it, are all healthy," he said. "They're energized and ready to go," he added.
Isaacman, a billionaire entrepreneur and commercial astronaut, was nominated by President Donald Trump in December 2024 to serve as NASA administrator.
He was confirmed by the Senate on Dec. 17, 2025, and sworn in the following day as the agency's 15th administrator.
He said that the astronauts are in quarantine, a standard precaution before the 10-day mission that will keep the four of them in close quarters inside the spacecraft.
Isaacman said limited family contact is permitted under similar health protocols to ensure the crew remains fit for the busy flight ahead.
"These four astronauts, they're going to go farther into space than any humans have ever gone before, 250,000 miles away from Earth, traveling 25,000 miles an hour faster than any humans have ever gone around the moon back here to Earth," he said.
The flight includes a Canadian crew member and marks the first crewed lunar mission in more than 50 years.
Isaacman described Artemis II as the first crewed test flight of a vehicle that had never previously carried humans.
The goal is to evaluate Orion's life-support systems and performance so the spacecraft will be ready for Artemis III in 2027, when it will dock with landers, and for Artemis IV in 2028, which he said will land astronauts on the moon before the end of Trump's term.
"That's where we're going to take the same spacecraft, Orion, dock it with the various landers, get comfortable with the integrated operations of the spacecraft and the landers," he said of Artemis III.
For Artemis IV, "in 2028, before the end of President Trump's term, Artemis IV will land those astronauts on the moon," Isaacman told Newsmax.
"We're going to stay, we're going to build a moon base," he said.
This time, the United States intends to do more than collect rocks and plant a flag, Isaacman said.
The program will use water ice at the lunar South Pole to produce propellant and will rely on orbital refueling technology being developed by companies including SpaceX and Blue Origin.
Those capabilities will allow far more mass to reach the surface affordably and serve as a proving ground for eventual Mars missions, he explained.
"That's how we're going to go back to the moon and actually be able to stay this time and turn it into the proving ground necessary for the skills to go to Mars," he said.
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Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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