The four astronauts selected for the Artemis 2 mission around the moon were invited to attend President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address.
Four astronauts will be guests at the State of the Union address as they fly around the moon on the first U.S. manned lunar spaceflight in more than 50 years.
NASA astronauts Reed Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen were among those seated as President Donald Trump delivered a marathon speech on Tuesday, February 24. Although his nearly two-hour speech set a record for a State of the Union address, President Trump did not mention the Artemis 2 mission for which the astronauts were selected.
The mission, the second in NASA’s multibillion-dollar program to return astronauts to the moon, is expected to launch no later than April. Artemis 2 was originally scheduled to launch in February, but has faced a series of delays due to problems detected with the towering rocket meant to propel the astronauts forward.
President Trump has previously spoken of his desire to see a moon landing before the end of his second term. Artemis 2 will then send four astronauts on a 10-day journey around the moon, and subsequent missions will help pave the way for future moon landings.
Here’s what you need to know about Artemis 2 and how the astronauts chosen for the mission ended up attending the State of the Union.
Artemis 2 astronauts attend President Trump’s State of the Union address
Wiseman, Glover, Koch and Hansen were guests of House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican representing Louisiana, during the 2026 State of the Union address. The four astronauts appeared in the House of Representatives chambers in Washington, D.C., wearing bright blue NASA jackets with mission patches.
The invitation was likely made at the last minute, as the astronauts were quarantined before launch to avoid exposure to the disease, before NASA notified them on Saturday, February 21, that the Artemis 2 launch would be postponed again.
Did President Trump mention the Artemis 2 moon mission in his SOTU speech?
President Trump did not specifically mention the Artemis 2 moon mission by name in his SOTU speech.
But President Trump has frequently emphasized the importance of America’s return to the moon amid a renewed space race with China to build a permanent lunar base at the south pole of Earth’s natural satellite. In fact, NASA’s Artemis program was established during his first term in 2017.
What is NASA’s Artemis mission?
NASA’s Artemis mission is NASA’s ambitious campaign to return Americans to the moon for the first time since the end of the Apollo era in 1972. Ultimately, Artemis mirrors NASA’s Moon-to-Mars approach to getting the first humans to Mars.
Over the next few years, NASA’s Operation Artemis aims to establish a lunar habitat in Antarctica and launch a series of crewed missions to establish a continued human presence on the moon. There, water ice, which is thought to be abundant in the region, could be extracted and used as a source of hydrogen and oxygen for drinking, breathing, and even rocket fuel.
Artemis 2’s astronauts will not land, but they will orbit the moon on a 10-day journey to test systems and hardware inside the Orion capsule in preparation for future expeditions to the surface. Later, Artemis 3 would land on the moon.
When is the Artemis 2 rocket launch date? What to know after the delay
The Artemis 2 mission will not break ground earlier than April after NASA postponed its launch again to resolve an issue with the upper stage of its Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. The State of the Union announcement came a day before NASA plans to lower the giant rocket from its launch pad, which has been in a vertical position since mid-January, to continue repairs.
The 322-foot-tall rocket will launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, and provide the initial thrust that will send astronauts into the Orion capsule.
Eric Lagatta is a Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Please contact elagatta@usatodayco.com.
