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The communications director of the White House, Steven Cheung, responded harshly this Thursday to former president Barack Obama following the launch of the Artemis II mission, directly accusing him of having undermined the U.S. space program.
Obama had posted on X a message celebrating the historic milestone: "It was inspiring to see the launch of Artemis II yesterday, the first crewed NASA flight around the Moon since 1972. Our space program has always captured an essential part of what it means to reach beyond what we thought possible, and I hope the four brave astronauts on this mission inspire a new generation to follow in their footsteps."
Cheung did not take long to respond: "You destroyed the space program. It is only thanks to President Trump that this triumph is a reality."
The crossing occurred one day after the launch of Artemis II from launch pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on April 2, 2026, marking the first crewed mission to the Moon since Apollo 17 in December 1972, over 50 years ago.
The mission carries four astronauts: Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover —the first African American to travel near the Moon—, Specialist Christina Koch —the first woman on a crewed lunar mission— and Jeremy Hansen from the Canadian Space Agency, the first Canadian to travel to the Moon.
The accusation from Cheung has a specific background: in 2010, the Obama administration canceled the Constellation program, launched by George W. Bush in 2004, which aimed to return astronauts to the Moon by 2020.
La revista Science tituló en su momento: "Obama propone terminar el programa de vuelos espaciales tripulados de la NASA." Space.com informó que "el presupuesto de Obama elimina el plan lunar de la NASA por un Programa Espacial del Siglo XXI." NBC News reportó que "la NASA llora la pérdida de su esfuerzo actual por enviar astronautas de regreso a la Luna." En 2017, The Hill publicó un artículo de opinión titulado "Cómo Barack Obama arruinó la exploración espacial de la NASA", el mismo año en que fue Trump, who on December 11, 2017, signed Space Policy Directive 1 para relanzar las ambiciones lunares del país. El siguiente paso del programa es Artemis III, which is set to carry out the first moon landing of the program in 2028.
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