{"id":193622,"date":"2025-12-20T16:15:36","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T16:15:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/193622\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T16:15:36","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T16:15:36","slug":"trump-signs-order-to-put-americans-on-the-moon-by-2028-but-is-it-feasible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/193622\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump signs order to put Americans on the moon by 2028. But is it feasible?"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON, D.C. (NEXSTAR) \u2014 President Trump issued an executive order on Thursday urging NASA to put Americans on the moon<\/a> by 2028, signing it the same day NASA\u2019s new Senate-confirmed<\/a> administrator Jared Isaacman took office.<\/p>\n

The order, titled \u201cEnsuring American Space Superiority,\u201d emphasizes the role of the upcoming Artemis missions for Americans to journey to the moon and Mars.<\/p>\n

NASA has targeted April 2026 for the launch of Artemis II. It would take the American astronauts in orbit around the moon \u2014 the furthest mission into deep space in human history.<\/p>\n

Artemis III would put people on the surface of the moon for the first time in the 21st\u00a0century. NASA\u2019s website has listed a mid-2027 launch date.<\/p>\n

But former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine told the Senate Commerce Committee in a September hearing he doesn\u2019t think the U.S. will be able to land astronauts on the moon by that date, nor by China\u2019s stated goal of landing astronauts on the moon by 2030.<\/p>\n

\"Trump<\/p>\n

Trump Moon<\/p>\n

A full moon rises behind the half-staff American flag on the south lawn of the White House, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Allison Robbert)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is highly unlikely that we will land on the moon before China,\u201d Bridenstine said in September. \u201cWe don\u2019t have a landing system for the moon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bridenstine blamed the lander architecture. It relies on the SpaceX Starship. Over the past year, SpaceX has endured multiple setbacks with Starship, including an explosion on a test stand in June, as SpaceX prepared for its tenth test flight.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a problem. It needs to be solved. And that puts us as a nation at risk of not being the first on the moon,\u201d Bridenstine said in September.<\/p>\n

In October, then-acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy, also the secretary of Transportation, said he would open up the contract for a moon lander for Artemis III, because of delays with the SpaceX Starship.<\/p>\n

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) pointed to an additional $10 billion to fund human space travel in the Big Beautiful Bill, which Trump signed into law in July.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going back to the moon. We\u2019re going to beat China,\u201d Cruz said in November.<\/p>\n

Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) just finished his term as the Chair of the House Science and Space Committee. He said the threat of China pushed Congress to invest more in space.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the last 20 years, there\u2019s been a kind of low-balling by Congress in the funding of NASA,\u201d Lucas said. \u201cWhoever controls the off-world controls the future of the whole planet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lucas said the investment in space travel will benefit people on Earth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would argue, had there never been a space program, we wouldn\u2019t all be carrying smartphones and we certainly wouldn\u2019t be carrying GPS equipment to know where we are,\u201d Lucas said.<\/p>\n

Isaacman, shortly after he took office, wrote on X that NASA will \u201clead the peaceful exploration of space and we will NEVER come in second place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON, D.C. (NEXSTAR) \u2014 President Trump issued an executive order on Thursday urging NASA to put Americans on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193623,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[6282,68847,34431,54960,8312,120246,3323,75603,111,139,69,5618,147,120247,392],"class_list":["post-193622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-artemis","tag-astronauts-on-the-moon","tag-executive-order","tag-jared-isaacman","tag-jim-bridenstine","tag-moon-lander","tag-nasa","tag-nasa-administrator","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-president-trump","tag-science","tag-senate-commerce-committee","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}