
Moon Should Be a StateDec 3
pirate wires #129 // the case for an america that grows, breaking down the moon thesis
Apr 1, 2026

Today at 6:24 p.m., NASA will send the first Americans to Moon in 54 years. Artemis II, crewed by three NASA astronauts, will fly around Moon, traveling farther into space than any human in history.
At the Hill and Valley Forum last week, Jared Isaacman — NASA’s new administrator — detailed his vision for the agency: returning to Moon and staying there. “This time,” he said, “the goal is not flags and footprints. This time, the goal is to stay. America will never again give up the moon.” That morning, he announced plans to build a $20b moon base by 2032 that will serve as a launch pad to help nuclear fission-powered rockets reach Mars.
Instinctively, these near-term ambitions seem like an implausibly long shot. We have grown to expect NASA to disappoint us. But NASA wasn’t always this way. And, if today is any indicator, it no longer will be.