Ross Douthat

From New York Times Opinion, I'm Ross Dowsett, and this is Interesting Times.

We're going back to the moon.

Well, at least that's the hope.

God willing, and without any additional delays, NASA plans to launch its Artemis II rocket sometime this spring, sending astronauts around the moon and back for the first time in 50 years.

After that, the hope is to actually land again and establish a base for scientific research.

And once we have a lunar base, well, maybe it will help us develop the technology to get to Mars and even beyond.

These are the goals of the new NASA administrator, Jared Isaacman, a billionaire entrepreneur and pilot turned SpaceX astronaut.

As that description suggests, his goals overlap with figures like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, who are trying to make private space exploration work.

I want it all to work, but I also have my doubts.

An enduring human presence beyond Earth requires more than just ambition.

It requires big technological breakthroughs.

It requires stronger commercial incentives, maybe mining rare minerals, maybe building orbital data centers.

And it wouldn't hurt to have the evidence of extraterrestrial life that Donald Trump keeps teasing.

I sat down with Jared Isaacman at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland to talk about all of this and more, and to let him make the case that we really can explore the final frontier.

Jared Isaacman, welcome to Interesting Times.

Great to be here.

Thank you.

No, it's great to be here.

Yes.

So we asked for, you know, a secret test facility buried under the Rockies.