WASHINGTON, D.C. (NEXSTAR) — In a significant move, President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday, directing NASA to land American astronauts on the moon by 2028. The announcement coincided with Jared Isaacman’s first day as NASA’s newly appointed administrator, confirmed by the Senate.

The executive order, named “Ensuring American Space Superiority,” underscores the importance of the Artemis missions, which aim to advance human exploration to the moon and eventually Mars.

NASA has set its sights on April 2026 for the launch of Artemis II, a historic mission that will see American astronauts orbit the moon, marking the farthest human venture into deep space to date.

The subsequent mission, Artemis III, is slated to achieve a historic milestone by landing astronauts on the moon’s surface for the first time in the 21st century, with a tentative launch date in mid-2027 as per NASA’s schedule.

Nevertheless, Jim Bridenstine, NASA’s former Administrator, expressed skepticism during a September Senate Commerce Committee hearing, questioning the feasibility of meeting the proposed timeline. He also pointed out the challenge posed by China’s ambition to land astronauts on the moon by 2030.

“It is highly unlikely that we will land on the moon before China,” Bridenstine said in September. “We don’t have a landing system for the moon.” 

Bridenstine blamed the lander architecture. It relies on the SpaceX Starship. Over the past year, SpaceX has endured multiple setbacks with Starship, including an explosion on a test stand in June, as SpaceX prepared for its tenth test flight. 

“It’s a problem. It needs to be solved. And that puts us as a nation at risk of not being the first on the moon,” Bridenstine said in September. 

In October, then-acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy, also the Secretary of Transportation, said he would open up the contract for a moon lander for Artemis III, because of delays with the SpaceX Starship. 

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) pointed to an additional $10 billion to fund human space travel in the Big Beautiful Bill, which President Trump signed into law in July. 

“We’re going back to the moon. We’re going to beat China,” Cruz said in November. 

Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) just finished his term as the Chair of the House Science and Space Committee. He said the threat of China pushed Congress to invest more in space. 

“For the last 20 years, there’s been a kind of low-balling by Congress in the funding of NASA,” Lucas said. “Whoever controls the off-world controls the future of the whole planet.” 

Lucas said the investment in space travel will benefit people on Earth. 

“I would argue, had there never been a space program, we wouldn’t all be carrying smartphones and we certainly wouldn’t be carrying GPS equipment to know where we are,” Lucas said. 

Isaacman, shortly after he took office, wrote on X that NASA will “lead the peaceful exploration of space and we will NEVER come in second place.”