Special to CosmicTribune.com, March 26, 2026

Geostrategy-Direct

By Richard Fisher

At the conclusion of his opening for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) epic March 24 morning brief on its Moon program simply titled “Ignition,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman stated:

“This is the moment where we should all start believing again. When ideas become missions, and when hard work delivers world changing accomplishments, NASA once changed everything, and we’re gonna do it again. The greatest days of science and discovery are ahead of us…”

But this brief also did much more.

“Ignition” signaled the end of decades of American floundering, stopping its Apollo Moon program in 1972 after only sending 12 Americans to the Moon, President Obama’s 2010 cancelling George W. Bush’s Constellation Moon program, with an empty diversion to reach Mars, to Trump’s first term 2017 revival of a U.S. manned Moon program, but with insufficient follow-through by President Joe Biden.

“Ignition” also made clear that the United States is now leading the return to Moon with depth of commitment and programs that offers plenty of opportunity for the 61 signatories of the Artemis Accords to join in the future commercially-led exploitation of the Moon.

In addition, the U.S. plan to build a presence on the Moon is being done with such speed and breadth that — so far — greatly exceeds China’s known plans for populating the Moon, and just as important, will proceed with a level of transparency that puts great political pressure on China to also build a peaceful non-military lunar presence — a key goal of the Artemis Accords.

Follow-up briefings by Dr. Lori Glaze, Acting Associate Administrator, Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESDMD) and Carlos Garcia-Galan, Program Executive, Moon Base, made clear that NASA is already focused intently on fulfilling President Donald Trump’s goal to return Americans to the Moon before the end of his term in 2029.

Dr Glaze explained how the next three Artemis missions to the Moon are already in progress:

• In early April three U.S. and one Canadian astronaut will launch the Artemis II circumlunar mission;
• Artemis III in 2027 is being redesigned to test “one or both” Human Landing System (HLS) lunar landers in Low Earth Orbit; and
• Mission elements are already being assembled for the planned 2028 Artemis IV mission that will return two astronauts to the Moon for 5 to 7 days.

But a key addition, mentioned by Isaascman and Glaze, is that there will be a second planned 2028 lunar mission, Artemis V.

Eventually, NASA envisions a lunar launch “cadence” of up to two missions a year.

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