President Donald Trump‘s NASA Administrator, Jared Isaacman, has reiterated the agency, as well as the Trump administration’s, Lunar and Martian goals.
Isaacman Touts Nuclear Spaceships
In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, the former Shift4 Payments Inc. (NASDAQ:FOUR) CEO hailed Trump’s new space policy, which was “the most ambitious and exciting” policy since the days of President John F Kennedy in the early 60s. Isaacman said that the policy would enable the creation of a “moon base” for astronauts to pursue the “scientific and economic” opportunities.
Isaacman also said that the administration wants to innovate in terms of space vehicles. “We’re gonna build nuclear spaceships,” the NASA Administrator said, which would enable the U.S. to realize its Mars ambitions.
Artemis Program
When asked about the Artemis 2 mission to the moon, Isaacman shared that the agency would build a moonbase and build rovers capable of mining helium-3 on the moon, with the Artemis 2 mission being the first “mission on that campaign,” predicting that NASA would launch astronauts around the moon “in the first half of this year.”
He also predicted that the astronauts would go past the moon and enable the agency to test out its equipment, the Orion spacecraft, as well as conduct “manual piloting exercises” in outer space. The Artemis 2 mission would serve as a basis for the Artemis 3 mission, which would see astronauts land on the Lunar surface, Isaacman shared.
Mars Ambitions
Speaking on Mars, Isaacman shared that the goal of reaching the Red Planet was achievable. He also touted Elon Musk‘s commercial space giant SpaceX, Jeff Bezos-backed space flight company Blue Origin, which had unveiled its updated New Glenn rocket in the latter part of 2025, as well as RocketLab Corp (NASDAQ:RKLB), as important partners who were working on making the Mars ambitions a reality.
SpaceX had outlined its capabilities, positioning the Starship rocket as the ideal vehicle to realize Mars and Lunar ambitions. The company highlighted that it was targeting cargo missions to the Moon and Mars by 2028 and 2030, respectively, with the Starship at the center of its plans.
Isaacman reiterated the importance of Nuclear energy to achieve the goal of traveling to Mars. “We gotta start making investments in Nuclear power in space,” the NASA Administrator shared. It’s worth noting that Musk has disagreed with supporters of Nuclear energy, backing solar power as the ideal source of energy instead.
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