A former NASA astronaut told CNN that the “entire administration” deserves credit for the Artemis II mission, pushing back on a host who was fishing for a narrower answer about President Trump.
The Artemis II crew splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off San Diego on April 10, completing the first crewed lunar mission in more than 50 years. Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian mission specialist Jeremy Hansen traveled 252,756 miles from Earth, farther than any humans in history, before looping behind the moon and returning safely.
CNN anchor Abby Phillip asked former astronaut Clayton Anderson whether Trump “deserves any credit,” noting the president had claimed he was “given a choice to shut NASA down or keep it going.”
Anderson deflected the attempt to isolate Trump’s role. “I think the entire administration deserves credit, all the people that are involved picking Mr. Isaacman,” he said, referring to NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. “The politics of it to me is kind of fluff. I think that the key thing is, is that we’re doing it and that takes the efforts of a lot of different people.”
Anderson spent 167 days aboard the International Space Station during his own career. He said he was “very envious” of the Artemis II crew and called the mission critical to maintaining American leadership in space. “We’ve got to be the best. We’ve got to be the leaders in space exploration,” he said.
NASA Administrator Isaacman, who arrived aboard the USS John P. Murtha ahead of splashdown, said the mission marked a turning point. “For the first time, we’ve gone into the lunar environment in more than half a century. We are back in the business of sending astronauts to the moon again.”
Isaacman confirmed Artemis III is slated for 2028 and will include the first moon landing since December 1972, when Apollo 17 concluded NASA’s original lunar program.
The Orion spacecraft reentered Earth’s atmosphere at roughly 25,000 mph, slowing to about 20 mph using an 11-parachute sequence before hitting the ocean 60 miles off the California coast. Temperatures outside the capsule peaked near 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit during reentry.
