In April of 2026, the United States seems on the path to land on the moon once again. The Artemis II marked the first crewed Artemis flight, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) first mission outside of low Earth orbit since 1972. The crew completed a nine-day lunar fly-by designed primarily to test new instrumentation and confirm the functionality of the Orion spacecraft for future missions.
60 years ago, on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human to ever walk on the moon. This first manned lunar landing marked the climax of the Space Race, where the Soviet Union and the United States tried to one-up each other in a battle for scientific supremacy and domination of the new world order. Only three years later, in December of 1972, NASA concluded the Apollo mission. It seemed, at the time, that public interest had dwindled, and they could no longer justify the ballooning costs of ongoing lunar landings.
The Apollo and Artemis missions are, among other things, exercises in deep investment in science. Across its 13-year span, the Apollo program cost $25.8 billion or around $300 billion when adjusted for inflation. According to government audits, each launch of the Orion spacecraft costs four billion dollars, and the total program has cost upwards of $93 billion as of 2025.
This investment in exploration is worthwhile. Scientific discovery is fantastic. In our short time of consciousness, humanity has learned so much about ourselves, our environment, our planet and our universe. The engineering and technology used to shoot four of our own kind all the way to the moon is incredible, and the photos they sent back are breathtaking. While, yes, we have been to the moon before, there is still so much to learn about our solar system and all that lies beyond. A trip near the moon could lead to a trip to the moon, which could lead to trips to Mars and onwards.
For the public, space exploration serves as an easy-to-understand example of science. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it became clear that the American public does not know how science works and about the process of learning, discovery and development across time. When guidance on masking or distancing changed, and later, when new vaccines came out, the public claimed that scientists were lying to them or purposefully keeping information private. The reality was simple: science is not the instant uncovering of cold, hard facts, but rather the ongoing journey and endeavor towards the truth. Space exploration, too, is part of the scientific process as we analyze moon rocks and try to uncover why life exists on Earth and how it came to be.
We have so much left to learn, and people deserve access to media and educational resources that will inform them about space and other aspects of science. Yet, with the public eye seemingly focused on Artemis II, we must also ask ourselves about what the American public is looking away from. The Artemis mission, like Apollo, is not just an exercise in science, but rather a political tool designed to assert American dominance.
The crew of the Artemis mission, made up of commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen, seems like a gesture towards a pre-Trump America. The team is relatively diverse, including one woman and one person of color. In fact, Koch is the first woman to ever travel to the moon. The same is true for Glover, the first Black person to travel to the moon. Hansen works for the Canadian Space Agency, a nod towards a relationship with our northern neighbor that appears increasingly tense with increased American volatility. The crew’s makeup is history-making, as all prior lunar missions were made up entirely of white men. The astronaut lineup, however, was announced in 2023, before Trump’s second election, when the steps of progress that formed their make-up were walked back. It is revolutionary, historical and meaningful, but it also serves as a stark contrast to the regression of American society in the past year and a half.
While Artemis II was on its nine day journey, the Trump administration released the fiscal year 2027 budget which includes significant cuts to Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), elimination of several low income housing programs and limitations on others and significant cuts to the National Institute of Health (NIH) and Center for Disease Control (CDC), among other devastating proposed changes. These massive reductions in NIH and CDC funding act to limit American scientific progress and discovery, so clearly, this, which should be the goal of the Artemis missions, is not really the priority.
That begs the question, why return to the moon if not to progress science? And perhaps the answer lies more within the historical setting of the Apollo missions. Yes, the nation sought scientific discovery, but more than anything, the journeys were an attempt to assert dominance and supremacy over the Soviet Union and establish a new world order. In 2026, America’s image as a superpower is in free fall as the Trump administration breaks ties with other countries and puts real progress on the back burner. Maybe the continued funding of Artemis missions, while simultaneously deprioritizing the needs and wants of ordinary people, is a similar move to grasp at domination. Simultaneously, the missions serve as a distraction, an encouragement for the public eye to look away from the government for a moment.
All of this is not to say that we should not go to the moon, explore space or invest in NASA. We certainly should. After all, investment in publicly funded space missions is better for our future than privately funded missions. It is just that while we can marvel at our world, our capabilities, and our achievements, we must also consume media and look around with a critical eye. When we think about Artemis, we must consider its potential role as a political tool in this moment. We can look towards the stars, but we must also remember to look around at each other.
