Jared Isaacman

And then in 2028, you're going to have Artemis 4, which will actually land mass astronauts on the moon.

In parallel, though, we are building the moon base.

Starting in early 2027, literally on a NASA moon-based website, you are going to see robotic uncrewed landings on a near monthly cadence as we start testing out mobility and power and navigation, you know, surface improvement, scientific experiments, tech demonstrations, like actually working with the water ice on the moon.

We're going to do that in parallel, building the base so when our astronauts arrive, they've got a lot of equipment to work with.

Well, I mean, we've never, you know, we've never inhabited another celestial body.

And I'll tell you, and this is remarkable, and you know this, of course,

For more than 25 years, there has been a continuous American presence in low Earth orbit at the International Space Station.

So if you're 25 years old or younger, there hasn't been a time you've been alive on this planet where there weren't American astronauts orbiting above you.

But if you're going to put astronauts in space and keep them alive, the best place to do it is low Earth orbit.

You've got the atmosphere and Earth's magnetosphere there that protect you from radiation and micrometeorites and orbital debris.

But where you want to go next is to the surface, the surface of the moon where you can interact with the regolith.

You can build habitation.

You can cover the habitation with regoliths.

for protection against meteoroids and radiation, you can work with the water ice.

And if you can work with the water ice on the moon, you can make hydrogen, you can make oxygen, and those are key propellants.

And why does that matter?

Because when you send astronauts to Mars someday, you're going to need to make your own propellant to come home.

Better to prove that out on the moon when you're three days away than on Mars when you're nine months away.

It does matter, and I'll tell you, that's changed under this administration.

Under the prior administration, you'd be shocked, but a lot of our international partners were actually considering and having discussions with the Chinese because they thought America's space program has lost its way.