President Trump hosted the Artemis II crew at the White House on Wednesday, celebrating their recent round-the-moon journey as he pushed to make space exploration part of his legacy. The four astronauts — Victor Glover, Christina Koch, Reid Wiseman and Jeremy Hansen — met with Trump in the Oval Office just weeks after completing their mission. "That was a lot of rocket under them," Trump said, praising the crew while expressing relief he wasn't aboard.

The celebration comes amid a contentious budget proposal that would slash NASA's overall spending by $5.6 billion, a 23 percent cut. Nearly half of NASA's science programs would lose funding, potentially shutting down dozens of active space missions. The Minority University Research and Education Project, which provides grants to historically Black colleges, faces termination. However, the budget increases moon landing funding by $731 million and includes roughly $10 billion from last year's tax legislation dedicated to space exploration.

Trump said the U.S. has a "good shot" at landing astronauts on the moon before his term ends, with NASA now targeting two moon landings in 2028. "We're back in the business of launching moon rockets with frequency," said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. Trump also told reporters he plans to soon release information about UFOs, saying "some of it's going to be very interesting to people."