Astronaut Reid Wiseman told a media conference the team “do not shy away from the reality we are in” amid reports the space agency’s budget next year could be slashed by up to a quarter.
President Donald Trump’s new administration has pledged to prioritise human space exploration, including Artemis, but could cut up to 40 current and future missions, mostly focused on science and research.
Australia is now a key player in the Artemis program, with NASA tasking the Australian Space Agency with creating a rover that will collect lunar regolith or moon soil that will eventually be turned into oxygen to support a permanent human base.
Speaking in Florida on Wednesday, Wiseman said, “It does hurt to lose friends. We have said goodbye to some really good friends, but at the end of the day, we absolutely have the team across the board right now to finish.
“How do we get the leaders to care, our elected officials to care? We don’t know what a year from now is going to look like, a year and a half from now, but we know exactly what we have to do for the next six months, and we’re a part of a team that is focused and knows what we have to do.”
Wiseman added that his team are “clear-eyed” on making Artemis 2 a success and said that was the “best way to get them to care, invest and decide to change behaviours”.
“It is also the best way to ensure that there may be something beyond Artemis 3. And so I think those are tied together.”
Nearly 4,000 employees are set to leave the space agency through a deferred resignation program, with 500 having already exited this year. In total, its workforce could shrink by around 20 per cent by next January.
However, President Trump’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill”, a US federal statute focused on future spending, was signed into law earlier this year and pledged US$4.1 billion for two new lunar landings, Artemis 4 and Artemis 5.
There was also a further US$20 million set aside to procure Lockheed Martin’s Orion space capsule and US$2.6 billion to develop the Lunar Gateway station.
Those projects were in doubt with the administration previously hinting it could cut Artemis and Gateway to focus on collaborations with private firms.
The backing follows the exit of Elon Musk from Trump’s inner circle, who was also heavily critical of the Artemis program, which he branded “extremely inefficient”.
Artemis II aims to fly astronauts close to the moon in preparation for the final Artemis III mission that will return humans to the lunar surface.
The mission is currently scheduled to launch in April 2026 and will carry NASA astronaut Wiseman, alongside colleagues Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
Their 10-day journey will include flying 4,600 miles beyond the moon and back to Earth. During the voyage, the crew will evaluate the spacecraft’s performance, test its navigation and communication systems, as well as conduct experiments.
They will also perform a rendezvous operation with the Space Launch System’s upper stage, practising docking activities needed for Artemis III, now scheduled for 2027.
Artemis II, though, has repeatedly faced delays, not least due to a problem with the heat shield on Orion that NASA believes has been fixed.
Earlier this year, though, Lockheed Martin revealed it had completed work on the new Orion capsule, which also included new life support systems, controls and audio communications.
Adam Thorn
Adam is a journalist who has worked for more than 40 prestigious media brands in the UK and Australia. Since 2005, his varied career has included stints as a reporter, copy editor, feature writer and editor for publications as diverse as Fleet Street newspaper The Sunday Times, fashion bible Jones, media and marketing website Mumbrella as well as lifestyle magazines such as GQ, Woman’s Weekly, Men’s Health and Loaded. He joined Momentum Media in early 2020 and currently writes for Australian Aviation and World of Aviation.