Artemis II Crew Meets with Biden and Harris (Updated)

The Artemis II crew made an unannounced visit to the White House today, meeting with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. The President’s and Vice President’s schedules released last night made no mention of the impending meeting of the country’s two top elected officials with the four people who will be the first to circle the Moon since the Apollo era. [This article was updated after NASA released more information on December 19.]

The White House releases the President’s and Vice President’s daily schedules every evening. The schedules for today did not include anything related to NASA.

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The first public hint that the three Americans and one Canadian chosen to fly the first human mission around the Moon since 1972 were visiting the White House was a post on X by CNN reporter Kristin Fisher at 5:07 pm ET.

NEW – The Artemis II crew is at the White House right now with their families. They will be meeting with President Biden in the Oval Office momentarily. These four astronauts will be the first to orbit the moon since the end of the Apollo program in 1972

— Kristin Fisher (@KristinFisher) December 14, 2023

NASA confirmed to SpacePolicyOnline.com that the astronauts were at the White House and said they would “publish an image release and share additional photos once the White House releases their products.”

NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen were selected as the Artemis II crew in April.

As of press time, NASA had posted to X one photo of the crew on the White House grounds, but not with Biden or Harris. According to the post, they discussed “their training and science plans for the mission.”

The #Artemis II astronauts who will go to the Moon talk to press after they met with @POTUS and @VP at the @WhiteHouse today, Dec. 14. The crew talked about their training and science plans for the mission, set to launch in late 2024. ? https://t.co/pqP9kFTJsb pic.twitter.com/rbhrRJXwFy

— NASA HQ PHOTO (@nasahqphoto) December 15, 2023

Artemis II is scheduled to launch about one year from now on the crewed test flight of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft.  An uncrewed test flight, Artemis I, successfully splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off of San Diego almost exactly one year ago on December 11, 2022 after 25 days 11 hours.

As a test flight, they will not orbit Moon, much less land on it. Instead they will be on a “free return” trajectory that will bring them back to Earth even if their propulsion system does not perform as expected.

Why the White House and NASA chose not to disclose this event in advance is unclear.

UPDATE:  On December 19, the day before a meeting of the White House National Space Council chaired by Harris, NASA issued a press release about the crew’s meeting with Biden and Harris, including the first publicly released photo of the crew with the President. Previous photos were only of the crew outside the White House. The press release notes that the crew met with Harris separately from the meeting with the President.

The White House also posted photos and videos on X of the meetings.

I had the honor of welcoming the brave crew of the Artemis II mission to the Moon to the White House.

Here on Earth, our children will learn the names of these pioneers.

And it’s the Artemis Generation who will carry us into the future we hope to build for the benefit of all. pic.twitter.com/31GQODJPg2

— President Biden (@POTUS) December 19, 2023

As the Chair of the National Space Council, I am proud of our Administration’s work to continue the American legacy of space exploration.

Thanks to the leadership and ingenuity of the Artemis II crew, we are one step closer to returning to the moon. pic.twitter.com/oQRWLT6Hhl

— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) December 19, 2023