The Trump Administration Is Championing the Lunar Program Trump Once Sought to Eliminate

The White House is championing and celebrating the Artemis lunar program, with Artemis II set to launch Wednesday as part of NASA’s long-awaited mission to return humans to lunar orbit.

“During President Trump’s first term, the Artemis program was formally established to return humanity to the Moon,” White House assistant press secretary Liz Huston said in a statement. “President Trump is excited about the next phase with the historic upcoming Artemis II launch.”

Less than a year ago, the president was trying to kill the bulk of the program.

When President Donald Trump returned to office, there were existing plans for four Artemis missions, with more to come as the program progressed. Artemis I had already successfully carried an unmanned Orion spacecraft around the moon in 2022, ahead of Artemis II’s planned manned mission. Artemis III and IV would see humans return to the moon’s surface for the first time in over half a century, and future missions would build on their progress.

But months into his second term, the president submitted a budget wishlist to Congress that would have slashed the program’s funding and eventually eliminated the long-developed rocket program it relies on to ferry humans to the moon.

“The Budget phases out the grossly expensive and delayed Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion capsule after three flights,” Trump’s request reads, noting the $4 billion-per-launch price tag. (Although the Artemis program began during Trump’s first term, the Space Launch System had been in development since 2011.)

The president requested an $879 million cut to the NASA program supporting the Artemis missions. “The Budget funds a program to replace SLS and Orion flights to the Moon with more cost-effective commercial systems,” the request reads.

At the time, Elon Musk was still a major player in Trump’s White House, and the budget the president submitted included a number of wins for the world’s richest man, whose private spaceflight company, SpaceX, is developing its own super-heavy rocket to ferry humans to the moon and Mars.

Despite delays and cost overruns, lawmakers from both parties and chambers have balked at the prospect of replacing the Space Launch System with a private alternative like Musk’s Starship.

“I think it is critical not to abandon projects that we have invested significant amounts into and that are important parts of the architecture for returning to the moon and going to Mars,” Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Chair Sen. Ted Cruz told NOTUS last year.

The president’s budget would have added $647 million to the prior year’s “Human Space Exploration” allowance — the only suggested increase to NASA’s operations.

In turn, Trump asked for major reductions across NASA: over $2 billion cut from “Space Science” programs, $1.1 billion cut from “Mission Support” operations, $1.1 billion cut from “Earth Science” programs, $531 million cut from “Space Technology” and hundreds of millions more slashed from other related programs, some deemed as “woke.”

Congress rejected most of the cuts, and Republicans’ reconciliation bill provided funding for Artemis IV and V.

Since the passage of that bill and the confirmation of Jared Isaacman as NASA administrator, the administration has become far more supportive of the Space Launch System program. The White House did not give an explanation for the shift when asked.

In March, Isaacman detailed a newly revised schedule for the Artemis program, increasing the launch cadence and committing to the program through Trump’s second term. Artemis III will now test the docking mechanism between Orion and a private lunar lander, teeing up missions IV and V to each land humans on the moon by 2028.

Isaacman thanked the “bipartisan mix of members of Congress and staff from authorization and appropriation committees who have provided the direction and the resources” needed to support Artemis.

“NASA never undertakes these grand endeavors alone,” he continued. “The presence of all of you here today sends a very powerful message about what we intend to accomplish together.”