EXCLUSIVE: NASA head reveals America's EPIC moonshot mission

What this episode is about

NASA's new head, Jared Isaacman, discusses the upcoming Artemis 2 mission, which aims to send astronauts on a historic journey to circle the moon, marking a significant step towards future lunar exploration. He also addresses the unprecedented health-related incident involving Crew 11, where astronauts were brought back from the International Space Station, highlighting the challenges faced in space missions.

Key takeaways

• Jared Isaacman: from astronaut to NASA chief—proving you can launch higher after getting knocked down.
• Artemis 2 aims to circle the moon; a crucial step before we can set foot once again. Watch out lunar dust!
• Rapid response during Crew 11's health scare showcases NASA's evolution—emergency protocols now as essential as rocket fuel.
• Contrary to Biden-era delays, Isaacman's leadership showcases how priorities can shift dramatically in the cosmos. Buckle up!
• NASA's first 25 years of continuous human presence proves it's not just about leaving Earth; it's about facing the void.

Who speaks in this episode?

• Glenn Beck (Guest) · 8 min speaking
• Jared Isaacman (Guest) · 6 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 3:00: Jared Isaacman, NASA, Artemis 2
2. 3:00 – 6:00: Artemis 2, NASA, Donald Trump
3. 6:00 – 9:00: Artemis 2, Donald Trump, SpaceX
4. 9:00 – 12:00: Donald Trump, SpaceX, Blue Origin
5. 12:00 – 14:04: Donald Trump, Apollo program

Notable quotes from "EXCLUSIVE: NASA head reveals America's EPIC moonshot mission"

• I'm so excited for this next segment with our next guest Jared Isaacman. he has he is now the head of NASA. He was if you remember he was nominated to be the head of NASA.

  about Jared Isaacman · at 0:01

• To the side of the highway, I am going to watch this because we are going back to the moon. This will be the first time that we have gone and sent people to circle the moon.…

  about Artemis 2 · at 0:58

• We've all been watching take place over the last call it you know 5 years. You know you see a SpaceX Falcon 9 and Dragon send four astronauts to the International Space Station…

  about SpaceX · at 6:02

• It's extraordinary and it's step one. I can't emphasize that enough. President Trump with his national space policy. He created the Artemis program during his first term and he…

  about NASA · at 8:21

• Difference? You've got some fantastic entrepreneurs across commercial space industry, Elon Musk at SpaceX, Jeff Bezos at Blue Origin, dozens of other companies putting their…

  about Blue Origin · at 11:02

• It is the twin sister of Apollo, as in the Apollo program.

  about Apollo program · at 13:25

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Jared Isaacman — Person · Main guest · 2 mentions · first at 0:03
  Interview subject presented as leading NASA and explaining Crew 11’s early return and the Artemis 2 mission, framing U.S. space leadership and lunar-base strategy.
• Donald Trump — Person · Referenced political leader / policy driver · 4 mentions · first at 4:27
  Cited as the decision-maker behind Isaacman’s (re)nomination and as the architect of the Artemis program and national space policy emphasizing U.S. leadership, lunar base ambitions, and strategic value of the Moon.
  He's just fascinating and I'm talking to him like you've got to be the head of the NASA of NASA. And lo and behold, Trump decides, we're going to we're going to renominate you.…

Companies & orgs

• NASA — Company · Business focus · 3 mentions · first at 0:04
  Central organization discussed in the podcast, responsible for the Artemis 2 mission and other space exploration initiatives.
• SpaceX — Company · Referenced company · 2 mentions · first at 6:06
  Mentioned as a key player in the commercial space industry, contributing to space exploration efforts.
• Blue Origin — Company · Referenced company · 1 mention · first at 11:05
  Mentioned as part of the commercial space industry, contributing to space exploration alongside NASA and SpaceX.

Concepts & topics

• Apollo program — Concept · Historical reference · 1 mention · first at 13:25
  Referenced as the predecessor to the Artemis program, highlighting the evolution of lunar exploration.

Places & events

• Artemis 2 — Event · Core topic · 7 mentions · first at 0:48
  Upcoming NASA mission to send astronauts around the moon, marking a significant step in lunar exploration.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:01 I'm so excited for this next segment with our next guest Jared Isaacman. Um he has uh he is now the head of NASA. He was if you remember he was nominated to be the head of NASA. Um and then for some reason or another that was rescended and they went a different direction. Um and I had him on a podcast I don't even know a few months back and uh he's just fascinating and I'm talking to him like you've got to be the head of the NASA of NASA. And lo and behold, Trump decides, we're going to we're going to renominate you. And so he he is now the head of NASA. And uh if you have never seen a NASA launch, I was there for one of the last or if not the last space shuttle launch. Um [snorts] and I brought my kids. They were too young to remember now. But uh it is a wonder of the world. And Artemis 2 is going up here in about a month, I think. Um, and I mean I'm I got to tell you, I will be one of those even if I have to pull off

0:58 to the side of the highway, I am going to watch this because we are going back to the moon. This will be the first time that we have gone and sent people to circle the moon. Um, one one last time before we actually land on the moon again. Um, but Jared is with us now. Hello Jared. How are you?

1:15 Hello sir. Thanks for having me back. You bet. It's great great to talk to you. Congratulations first of all on your appointment and uh and I'm expecting huge things from you cuz you are I mean finally an entrepreneur in charge of uh of NASA. Um can we start with what happened with uh crew 11 the space station for the first time in in history of 25 years of the uh of uh of the space program uh and of you know our labs up in space. We had to bring an we had to bring the astronauts or the crew back because of a health related issue.

1:49 Can you tell us what happened and is the astronaut okay? Sure. I I do want to just start by saying since I heard your intro, uh you don't have to camp out on the side of the road for the Artemis 2 launch. I'll certainly make sure you we've got a a seat reserved for you, especially since I know how much of a a fan you are of America's space program and all of the great history you collect at your studio that I was lucky enough to see when I visited. So, you can you can guarantee we'll have a spot for you.

2:16 And as far as crew, yeah, as far and and it's what an exciting mission, right? I'm sure we'll talk about it. But, um, as far as crew 11,

2:24 um, you know, one of the the greatest accomplishments, uh, that we've done at the International Space Station uh, is the continuous human presence in space over a quarter of a century, right? And that we're we're keeping our astronauts alive in an environment that is incredibly uh, harsh on their body. Um microgravity does a lot of things to you from um your vestibular system, cardiovascular system, bone density loss. It's a it's a radiation environment, right? But we're there to learn um and we expect that there will be circumstances uh that will appear.

2:58 This is why we we do extensive training. Our our astronauts are are are they're practically physicians. In fact, many of them are. Um we put them through extensive medical training. We put uh medical kits in all our spaceships. The International Space Station itself is like a almost an urgent care center because they use a lot of those tools for for science and research. And then we drill. We train for the the day that there is going to be um you know an uh an unexpected uh health related incident and it happened and everyone did an extraordinary job. uh the the crew 11 uh astronauts, there are other expedition mates on the international space stations, the flight surgeons in mission control, they all responded accordingly.

3:41 Uh the the uh the incident was stabilized very quickly. um we evaluated. So unfortunately due to the you know the the you know medical privacy um rules I can't tell you exactly what it was other than clearly it was a very serious situation. um you know something we had not seen before uh in space but had uh accounted for the possibility and that is why uh you know we put in motion the option to bring our astronauts home uh early which I think really speaks to American leadership in space. we we can send uh we can send our astronauts up um you know more or less on command which is what we're going to do with crew 12 is pull their mission forward and we can bring our astronauts home as required and this is very important to President Trump and and obviously his position on American uh supremacy in space.

4:34 So um you know it's bizarre Jared because it was it was not like that under Biden. I mean, how long did we wait to pull those astronauts back uh last time? And and you pulled this off quickly. And when does when does crew 12 go up? When are you going to launch them up?

4:49 Well, we're evaluating that timeline now because we're also preparing for the Artemis 2 mission, which is the one you mentioned in your opening comments, where we're going to send our astronauts farther into space than we've ever sent humans before, past the moon, back around the moon, and safely back to Earth. So, so there's some overlap in timelines now. So, we're evaluating both, which is a great problem to have. By the way, it I I love the idea that we are trying to deconlict multiple, you know, uh, historic spaceflight missions.

5:16 Um, but I do want to just give a compliment again. The the crew 11 made it easy for us to bring them home early. They had completed all their mission objectives, um, you know, almost ahead of schedule. They were due to come home in a matter of weeks anyway. They made it easy on us to bring them home early. And then, to your point, we're preparing crew 12 ahead of schedule. and we're preparing uh our Artemis 2 mission.

5:37 Okay. Now, Artemis 2, can you explain for people who don't know what this is? Why what is Artemis 2? How big is the rocket? Um why are we going around the moon? Why is this the first time we've done this since the 1970s? Why are we going to the moon again?

5:55 Okay, so these are all great questions. So first there is a big difference between the missions that um you know uh we've all been watching take place over the last call it you know 5 years. You know you see a a SpaceX Falcon 9 and Dragon send four astronauts to the International Space Station almost every 6 months. They do it so often that it looks you know it looks easy and it looks routine. It's still extremely hard. You know that you're taking a Falcon 9 rocket about 1.8 8 million pounds of thrust in a controlled explosion and accelerating those four astronauts to 17,500 mph and you're sending them to the International Space Station. That's hard. You want to know what's harder is 8.8 million lb of thrust accelerating four astronauts to nearly 25,000 m hour because now you have to get to near Earth escape velocity, right? which is what's essential if you're going to send astronauts to the moon or past the moon

6:53 where you need to exceed Earth escape velocity to to do missions in the future to Mars. So, that's what we're talking about coming up with Artemis 2. This is a whole another caliber of of rocket. Uh it's going to have two solid rocket boosters, throwback from the shuttle era. Even the center core, um you know, looks like the the shuttle uh main fuel tank. It's got shuttle main engines on it. Uh it's liquid oxygen, liquid hydrogen, and it is it is going to accelerate the uh you know those brave crew uh Artemis 2 astronauts uh farther into space than we ever sent anyone before. And this is step one on a journey to put astronauts back on the moon.

7:31 Is this bigger or around the same size as the shuttle? Uh so this will be the most powerful rocket uh that humans have ever uh traveled on. So, it is it is more powerful uh than the shuttle. It it is going to be able to accelerate past.

7:49 It is more powerful than the Saturn 5. Wow. I can't wait. I can't wait. It is I mean for anybody I hate to be but I was a kid in the 60s and 70s and I got to tell you this makes me feel like a kid. It is a wonder of the world. If you've never seen this, you will not believe your eyes. It is a wonder. You just can't imagine man has is able to do it. It's it's remarkable. Um

8:18 it's extraordinary. It's extraordinary and it's step one. I can't emphasize that enough. You know, President Trump with his national space policy. He created the Artemis program during his first term and he said, "We're not just going back to the moon to plant the flag and pick up rocks. He he wants an enduring presence. He wants America to return to the moon and have the ability to stay." So this might be Artemis 2 coming up, but our children someday are going to watch Artemis 100. I mean th this mission sets up a series of of uh of of launches to and from the moon, the construction of a lunar base so we can realize the scientific and economic value of being on the lunar surface. So this is a major commitment by the president. It's very exciting.

9:05 What are the I mean as an entrepreneur, you know, we run out of money at some point if we just keep thinking we can print money. How does this affect us economically? Why why is this important to do this? How how do we get a payoff on this other than look at us, we're on the moon?

9:25 It's such a great question. So, in part, we have we we are fulfilling a promise to the American people. For 35 years, presidents have called for a return to the moon. We've spent over a hundred billion dollars to do it. It wasn't until President Trump in his first term where he really committed us on that path by creating the Artemis program again in his second term, recommitting us and establishing the the lunar base. So, we're delivering on a promise here. It it's a promise the American people and the pioneers from the 1960s who built the foundation that we stand upon today. Second, we don't know what we're going to find out there that could change things here on Earth. You know, uh, on the lunar surface, you you could be mining helium 3, um, which has the the potential to change, uh, change things in in energy. It it's going to be a more efficient, uh, source of fusion power someday in the future. It has

10:18 applications in quantum computing. Do we want to come in second place on that? Because certainly the Chinese are setting out to do this. The Russians want to do this someday. So we have an obligation for American leadership in the high ground of space. The next stop is the moon, which is what we're our our our course is on today. But the president even through his national space policy committed us to the investments in nuclear power and propulsion to someday achieve American astronauts on Mars. So to your second point on is this expensive? It is. But what's different today than it was in the 1960s is it's not all on taxpayers shoulders. I mean, in the 1960s, we went to the moon with NASA's budget at 4 and a.5% of the discretionary budget. Right now, it's about a quarter of a percentage of that. Who's making up the difference? You've got some fantastic entrepreneurs across commercial space

11:05 industry, Elon Musk at SpaceX, Jeff Bezos at Blue Origin, dozens of other companies putting their resources on the line here for a capability for the benefit of the American people and really the world. the significance of the United States having a moon base um uh and being the first to have a moon base. What does that mean strategically? I mean, we've been talking about Greenland this week and everything else. I know that Space Force was used for the first time with Venezuela or at least officially used um in a in a you know, in a mission uh like like what we saw in Venezuela. Um what is the significance strategically of a moon base?

11:48 Well, really it's a it's about what you're trying to accomplish on the lunar surface and and and and what you can learn, right? So, if you have a orbiting um base above the moon, which which we have in our plans called gateway, um that has potentially some benefit from a logistics perspective, but but you're not interacting with the regalith. not constructing infrastructure, you're not mining, you're not doing, you know, insitue resource manufacturing, which is essential to future Mars missions. You're not able to develop a lunar economy above the moon, but you can develop a lunar economy on the moon. So, it it's it's vitally important. Um, certainly that you know, the president of the United States, you know, President Trump appreciates the strategic in uh significance of of uh of certain real estate out there. Uh, no one is better at this than the president of the United States. and and and some

12:39 of the the most important real estate that's within our reach where we can again begin to realize scientific and economic value. It's on the lunar surface.

12:49 Amazing. Uh it is always great to talk to Jared. I'm so happy that you are the guy running NASA. I mean you are you were born for this moment and uh it's a thrill to know you. Thank you so much.

12:59 Appreciate it. I'm grateful for the opportunity. Thank you. You bet. You bet. Um you know I just want to I want to leave you with this. You know, Artemis, do you know what Artemis is? It's Greek. It's ancient Greek. Um, and it it is the ancient goddess of the moon, the hunt, protection, and precision, and independence and resolve. It is the twin sister of Apollo, as in the Apollo program. It is the Apollo program was to prove that it could be done that man could go to the moon. Artemis is meant to prove we belong there. We can live there and we can build there.

13:53 This is historic.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "EXCLUSIVE: NASA head reveals America's EPIC moonshot mission"?

Glenn Beck (Guest), Jared Isaacman (Guest).

What is "EXCLUSIVE: NASA head reveals America's EPIC moonshot mission" about?

NASA's new head, Jared Isaacman, discusses the upcoming Artemis 2 mission, which aims to send astronauts on a historic journey to circle the moon, marking a significant step towards future lunar exploration. He also addresses the unprecedented health-related incident involving Crew 11, where astronauts were brought back from the International Space Station, highlighting the challenges faced in…

What is mentioned in this Glenn Beck episode?

7 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including NASA, Jared Isaacman, Artemis 2, Donald Trump, SpaceX, Blue Origin. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "EXCLUSIVE: NASA head reveals America's EPIC moonshot mission"?

The episode runs 14 min; the transcript is about 2,617 words in 26 timestamped sections.

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