President Donald Trump joked Wednesday that he would have “no trouble” becoming an astronaut, asking during an Oval Office meeting with NASA’s Artemis II crew whether a President could fly on a mission as Elon Musk’s SpaceX remains central to NASA’s moon plans.
Trump Floats Presidential Trip Into Space
During the event, Trump turned to NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman and asked, “Is a president allowed to go up in one of these missions?”
“We can get working on that,” Isaacman replied. “We’ll launch more rockets, more opportunities.”
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Trump opened the event on Wednesday behind the Resolute Desk, saying he was proud of the crew, which included NASA commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialist Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency mission specialist Jeremy Hansen.
President Praises Crew’s Courage And Fitness
The president praised the astronauts for their “unbelievable courage” and said, “to get in there, you have to be very smart. You have do a lot of things physically good.” “So, I would have had no trouble making it. I’m physically very good,” Trump said. “Maybe a little bit of a problem. I don’t know. We’ll have to try it sometime. Is a president allowed to go up in one of these missions?”
Asked whether he would preside over the first moon landing in more than 50 years, Trump said, “We have a shot at it.”
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Artemis Mission Sets Stage For Moon Return
The Artemis II crew splashed down off San Diego on April 10 after spending more than a week in space and traveling nearly a quarter million miles from Earth, the farthest any humans have gone. Isaacman, a billionaire and former SpaceX astronaut who became the first private citizen to conduct a spacewalk in 2024, said NASA plans Artemis 3 in 2027 and has two landing opportunities in 2028.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX is developing Starship as a fully reusable, rapid-reuse rocket system for missions to the Moon and Mars. The space venture’s upcoming IPO has been all the buzz recently, with the company targeting a $1.75 trillion valuation and aiming to raise over $75 billion in the listing.
However, some analysts have cautioned against participating in the IPO, citing major concerns about the Musk-led commercial spaceflight giant’s valuation.
Photo courtesy: Shutterstock
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