‘Can the president fly a space mission?’: Trump jokes as Artemis 2 astronauts visit White House
US President Donald Trump met with NASA’s Artemis 2 astronauts at the White House on Wednesday, hosting the astronauts shortly after they completed a historic 10-day mission around the moon.The crew includes astronauts Reed Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, all of whom attended the White House event. During the interaction, Trump made light-hearted comments about space travel, asking: “Can the president fly a space mission?”NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, who was also in attendance, responded to the president’s remarks by saying, “Mr. President, we can get started.” Astronauts recently completed the Artemis 2 mission, the first crewed flight around the moon in more than 50 years, marking a key step in NASA’s broader plan to return humans to the lunar surface and prepare for future missions to Mars.During the interaction, Trump said he believed NASA had a good chance of landing a moon landing during his current term, which ends in 2029. “Oh, we have a chance to make that happen.”He added, “I mean, we don’t like to say ‘for sure,’ because then you’re like, ‘Oh, we failed,'” and reiterated, “But I think we have a good chance” when talking to astronauts.The Artemis program aims to establish a long-term human presence on the moon, and the United States aims to land a man on the moon in 2028.The Artemis 2 mission tested critical systems including life support, navigation and radiation shielding, providing critical data for future deep space missions.
