Innovating for the Future
Space is essential for life as we know it and will continue to grow in importance with each passing year. Everything from high-speed Internet, communications, scientific research, national security, weather reporting, and navigating your road trips depends on space. If America wants to lead on Earth, it needs to lead in space.
For more than 60 years, NASA and American aerospace companies have pushed the boundaries of innovation to build world-class spacecraft including rockets, crewed spacecraft, satellites, space habitats, and interplanetary probes. The U.S. is the only country to take humans to deep space and visit every planet in our solar system – from the Sun to Neptune and beyond – with our spacecraft.
As more nations seek to expand their presence in space for commercial, scientific, and military purposes, it’s imperative that the U.S. retain its leadership role. Every dollar invested in the space economy is spent here on Earth, supporting thousands of jobs across the country. The benefits of long-term investment would last beyond the next economic report. Public engagement in space initiatives show the next generation of explorers, scientists, and American makers what’s possible. It promotes careers in STEM fields, which is critical to national competitiveness and every earthly benefit of American leadership in space.
Watch U.S. Fly is here to inform, educate, and inspire active participation in America’s future in space.
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Going Back to the Moon and Beyond
The Space Launch System and NASA Gateway
An American hasn’t stepped foot on the Moon since 1972. It’s time to go back… and beyond. Today, thanks to the most powerful operational rocket in the world – the Space Launch System (SLS) – NASA is well on its way.
Getting to space is challenging. It requires significant power and highly-advanced technology to safely transport astronauts and large spacecraft (lunar landers, habitats, etc.) for crewed missions to the Moon and beyond. SLS has been designed from the ground up to enable any deep space mission NASA and its international partners plan. It is the only rocket with the power, performance, and human safety requirements necessary for this mission.
On April 1, 2026, SLS successfully launched as part of NASA’s historic Artemis II mission from the Kennedy Space Center. Artemis II carried four astronauts around the Moon and back, breaking the record for the farthest any human has traveled from Earth.
SLS is scheduled to launch Artemis III and its crew into low Earth orbit in 2027, alongside NASA’s commercial partners. The two-week mission will test docking capabilities with human landing systems needed for future lunar landings.
The path back to the Moon and beyond will be difficult, but Americans will rise to the challenge and achieve humanity’s next “great leap for mankind.”
Humanity’s Most Important Outpost in Space
The International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is the world’s largest spacecraft ever assembled, but it’s also by far the longest continually crewed research facility and laboratory in space which has been supported by 15 countries from design to launch. Since the first crew arrived on station in 2000, we have maintained a permanent presence off Earth. In fact, the average college senior today has never lived a day in their life without a person living off planet on the ISS.
That spaceflight experience has allowed for important research to be performed that has far-reaching implications for life back here on Earth. Improving clean water access, creating more effective vaccines, monitoring natural disasters, developing more efficient farming techniques, and innovating new cancer treatments are just a few of the research areas scientists on the ISS are focusing on.
Along the way, the ISS is also supporting the creation of a low Earth orbit ecosystem – a viable commercial economy – that will pave the way for space hotels and other destinations in lower Earth orbit in the future.
ISS still has much more to teach us about living and working in space and is a crucial element of maintaining America’s leadership in space. It’s critical that we continue to support and utilize one of our world’s most valuable research facilities.
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