Artemis is not just exploration; it is strategic theater, alliance management and rule-setting in real time
By Peter Navarro | Fox News | April 11, 2026
Now that Artemis II has completed its lunar flyby and returned to Earth, Artemis is no longer a concept or a promise. It is a working American deep space architecture.
In a single mission, the Artemis II crew executed manual piloting and proximity operations, while the Orion spacecraft operated at lunar distance and proved the life support, propulsion, power, thermal, navigation and reentry systems that generated the operational data NASA says will shape the missions that follow.
As we celebrate this achievement, it is worth remembering how this mission began — and why it matters.
Early in his first term, Donald Trump saw what no president since Richard Nixon had seen clearly enough: returning to the Moon is not some relic of the last century’s glory days. It is the strategic high ground of this one.