Talk about a celestial salute.
President Trump honored the Artemis II astronauts Saturday night, inviting the crew onto the stage during his Fourth of July address on the National Mall.
“I assume you’re going to be heading to Mars,” Trump told the astronauts. “We’re going to be going to Mars very soon, and I think that’s something that we do have in mind.
“And we’re going to do the moon, and we’re going to go from there. We’re going to go to Mars, and we’re going to continue to be way ahead.”
“Some people smiled, they thought it was foolish, and now they’re finding it’s one of the most important things that we’ve done,” Trump continued.
“We were losing to China and to Russia in space, and now we’re leading them by giant steps, and it’s a great thing.”
Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen wrapped up their mission on April 10, making history as the first humans to travel to the Moon since the Apollo era following a successful 10-day lunar flyby aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft.
Also appearing alongside them was Harrison Schmitt, the last surviving astronaut to have walked on the lunar surface, a feat he accomplished during the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
Schmitt is one of just 12 people to have walked on the Moon, four of whom remain alive — Schmitt, Buzz Aldrin, Charlie Duke and David Scott. Schmitt became the most recent lunar tourist after his Apollo 17 commander, Gene Cernan, died in 2017.
Artemis is part of NASA’s ambitious plan to return astronauts to the Moon, build a lasting presence there and ultimately pave the way for human missions to Mars.
Trump has backed returning Americans to the lunar surface since his first term, when his administration accelerated the Artemis program.
Artemis II drew widespread public attention, with Trump watching the crew’s splashdown from his winery near Charlottesville, Va., where a television was wheeled in so he and guests could follow the dramatic return live.
NASA is now preparing for Artemis III, the next mission in the program, planned for next year.
That four-person crew — Randy Bresnik, Frank Rubio, Andre Douglas and the European Space Agency’s Luca Parmitano — is expected to test the Orion spacecraft’s ability to dock with lunar landing vehicles in Earth orbit, a critical step before astronauts attempt another Moon landing.
