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U.S. President Donald Trump delivers the Inform of the Union take care of during a joint session of Congress in the Home Chamber at the Capitol on Feb. 24, 2026 in Washington, D.C.
(Picture credit: Kenny Holston-Pool/Getty Photos)
President Donald Trump correct gave the longest Inform of the Union take care of in recorded history, a speech full of examples of the United States’ management space in the world, but it skipped over one imaginable point of satisfaction: NASA’s upcoming Artemis 2 moonshot, The USA’s first lunar flight with astronauts in over 50 years, which failed to even procure a mention.
Trump’s speech on Tuesday night time (Feb. 24) lasted more than 107 minutes, setting a brand original file for presidential addresses before Congress. But there wasn’t lots for space followers to sink their enamel into, even supposing NASA’s Artemis 2 astronaut crew turned into once there in individual.
The Artemis 2 astronauts — from left to correct, Canadian Space Company mission specialist Jeremy Hansen, pilot Victor Glover, commander Reid Wiseman and mission specialist Christina Koch — attend the Inform of the Union take care of during a Joint Session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Picture credit: Andrew Harnik/Getty Photos)
“This is a different fighting force than we had years ago, when we fought to tie,” Trump talked about about 90 minutes into Tuesday’s Inform of the Union (SOTU) speech. “It’s a great fighting force. I’m so proud of it. Look at Space Force. The Space Force is my baby, because we did that. My baby’s becoming so important.”
He then discussed the U.S. military’s take grasp of of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro final month. The Space Pressure it sounds as if played a key position in that mission, which turned into once identified as Operation Absolute Unravel.
There turned into once correct one other mention of the final frontier in Tuesday night time’s SOTU, the 2nd of Trump’s 2nd time frame in office. It came about cease to the terminate, as Trump waxed poetic about what The USA has performed over the first 250 years of its history.
“Together, we mastered the world’s mightiest industries, shattered history’s monstrous tyrannies, and we liberated millions from the chains of fascism, communism, oppression and terror,” Trump talked about. “American citizens lifted humanity into the skies on the wings of aluminum and steel, and then we launched mankind into the stars on rockets powered by sheer American will and unyielding American pride.”
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The president ended his take care of with out mentioning NASA’s Artemis 2 mission, that would possibly well perchance delivery four astronauts spherical the moon as soon as April 1. It’s going to be the first crewed flight beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 succor in 1972.
That omission is severely surprising, as a result of the Artemis 2 astronauts — NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Company — attended the SOTU as company of Mike Johnson (R-La.), Speaker of the Home of Representatives.
And the Artemis program, which targets to establish a number of bases cease to the moon’s south pole in the next five years or so, is another one of Trump’s babies: It turned into once established in December 2017, during his first time frame. Relieve then, the president talked about he wished Artemis astronauts to land on the moon by uninteresting 2024, which he envisioned would possibly well perchance be the tail terminate of his 2nd time frame in office.
That did now not happen, of route. The program has skilled a couple of delays over the years, including one which turned into once introduced correct this past weekend. NASA had been gearing as much as delivery Artemis 2 as soon as March 6, but a glitch with the mission’s Space Launch Intention rocket is forcing crew participants to roll the automobile off the delivery pad for troubleshooting.
That rollback, which will occur on Wednesday (Feb. 25), pushes the Artemis 2 liftoff succor to April 1 at the earliest.
The Artemis 2 quartet — who went into quarantine on Friday (Feb. 21) to prep for their flight, superb to leave it a day later — did now not procure worthy display mask time during Tuesday night time’s speech. The superb spaceflyer we observed on TV in NBC’s broadcast turned into once U.S. Sen. Tag Kelly (D-Ariz.), who flew four space shuttle missions during his days as a NASA astronaut.
The Trump administration, by the system, now not too long ago censured Kelly — a dilapidated Navy fighter pilot with 39 fight missions beneath his belt — over his participation in a video that urged U.S. servicemembers to now not obey illegal orders. Kelly has sued the Pentagon and Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth over that censure marketing campaign.
Closing 12 months’s Inform Of The Union speech had a a chunk of spacier in fact feel to it. During that speech, Trump talked about that American citizens “will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars.”
Michael Wall is a Senior Space Author with Space.com and joined the crew in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, but has been identified to dabble in the space art work beat. His guide about the gaze alien existence, “Out There,” turned into once published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael labored as a herpetologist and natural world biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor’s level from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificates in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his most up-to-date undertaking is, that you may well well follow Michael on Twitter.
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