President Donald Trump delivered a record-breaking State of the Union address on February 24, 2024, lasting over 107 minutes, yet notably omitted a significant achievement in space exploration: NASA’s upcoming Artemis 2 mission. This mission marks the United States’ first crewed lunar flight in more than 50 years, but it received no mention during the speech, despite the presence of the Artemis 2 astronaut crew in attendance.
During the speech, Trump highlighted the achievements of the U.S. Space Force, a military branch he established in December 2019. He stated, “The Space Force is my baby, because we did that. My baby’s becoming so important,” emphasizing the branch’s growing role in national defense. The president also referenced the military’s recent operations, including the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, which relied on the Space Force’s capabilities during a mission dubbed Operation Absolute Resolve.
As Trump reflected on the country’s achievements over its 250-year history, he briefly acknowledged America’s contributions to space exploration, stating, “Americans lifted humanity into the skies on the wings of aluminum and steel, and then we launched mankind into the stars on rockets powered by sheer American will and unyielding American pride.” Despite this nod to the past, the omission of Artemis 2 was surprising given the high-profile nature of the mission.
NASA’s Artemis 2 mission will launch four astronauts—Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency—around the moon, with a planned liftoff date of April 1, 2024. This mission will be the first crewed flight beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972. The astronauts were guests of Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House of Representatives, but received little recognition during the address.
The Artemis program, which aims to establish a base near the moon’s south pole within the next five years, was initiated during Trump’s first term in December 2017. At that time, he expressed aspirations for astronauts to land on the moon by late 2024, coinciding with the end of his second term. However, the program has faced numerous delays, including a recent setback that postponed the Artemis 2 launch due to issues with the mission’s Space Launch System rocket.
NASA had originally aimed for a launch on March 6, but technical problems necessitated the rollback of the rocket from the launch pad for troubleshooting, pushing the launch back to April 1 at the earliest. The Artemis 2 crew had entered quarantine in preparation for their flight but were released shortly thereafter due to these developments.
The absence of significant references to Artemis 2 and the astronauts during the State of the Union contrasts with last year’s address, which contained a more ambitious vision for space exploration. Trump had previously proclaimed that Americans would “pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars.”
As the nation anticipates the Artemis 2 mission, the focus on military initiatives over space exploration in the president’s address raises questions about the future prioritization of scientific endeavors within the broader context of national policy.
