What NASA chief Jared Isaacman is looking for in the coming days as Artemis II loops around the moon

Washington — NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman outlined on Sunday the most critical moments he expects in the coming days as Artemis II astronauts continue their journey around the far side of the moon, describing it as a key test mission in the quest to return humans to the lunar surface.

The Artemis II mission launched last week, marking the first piloted moonshot since the end of the Apollo program more than five decades ago. On Monday, the operation’s four crew members are set to surpass the Apollo 13 record for the farthest distance from Earth that humans have traveled.

“The primary objective right now for this phase of the mission is continuing to gather data from the ECLS system, the life support system on the Orion spacecraft,” Isaacman said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”

The mission is intended as a test flight to lay the groundwork for future efforts to land astronauts on the moon, traveling in a crew capsule known as the Orion. Isaacman noted that “this is the first time we’ve ever had humans onboard the Orion spacecraft.”

“We want to gather as much data as we possibly can for that,” he said. “Of course, there’s various science experiments, there’s lunar observations, but learning as much as we can about Orion is critically important, because Artemis III is a year away.”

Isaacman outlined that Artemis III, slated to launch in mid-2027, will test the same spacecraft with lunar landers, followed by Artemis IV in 2028, “where we’re going to use this spacecraft, transfer crew to the landers, and put American astronauts back on the surface of the moon.”

Humans have not visited the moon since NASA’s Apollo 17 mission in 1972.

The Artemis II astronauts are set to make history Monday as the first humans to see some parts of the far side of the moon. Isaacman said, “after a 250,000-mile journey away from Earth to the far side of the moon, it would be pretty hard to keep them away from those windows.”

Asked by CBS News’ Ed O’Keefe what the astronauts will be looking for, Isaacman said they will have “observational responsibilities,” with a series of different cameras and data collection duties.

“But all of this comes together to inform subsequent missions like Artemis III, but most importantly now Artemis IV, which is where we’re going to actually get those astronauts back on the surface,” Isaacman said.

Isaacman is a billionaire entrepreneur and a veteran private astronaut, who has strong ties to SpaceX founder Elon Musk. He was the first private citizen to carry out a spacewalk.

The spacecraft carrying the Artemis II crew is expected to temporarily lose communications with Earth for an estimated period of about 40 minutes Monday as it travels around the far side of the moon. But Isaacman said it’s “something we’re very used to in space flight mission control.”

“Astronauts are used to that as they go through training,” he said.

For Isaacman, he said he’ll be thinking about the life support systems on the vehicle as they travel around the moon. But most importantly, he said, “I’m thinking about the thermal protection systems and when these astronauts are under parachute, safely in the water, so we can get them back to their families.”