BREAKING: NASA Chief Jared Isaacman says returning to the Moon is the first step toward Mars. "We've made incredible progress in low Earth orbit. The International Space Station, if you're 25 years or younger, you have not lived a time when there weren't astronauts orbiting above you on the ISS. We've gained so much from it, but it's time to take the next step, to go to the surface of the moon, establish the enduring presence. Number one goal, master the skills necessary to go to Mars. I mean, we've been gifted a moon here that's, you know, three and a half days away for us to test habitability, next generation spacesuits, putting a nuclear reactor on the south pole of the moon, to interact with the water ice in the permanently shaded regions of the south pole, so you can make life support, whether it's oxygen, you can make liquid oxygen, liquid hydrogen that you could use potentially for rocket fuel. You are going to, believe me, want to figure all that out and get very good at it when you're three and a half days away on the lunar south pole than when you're potentially nine months or more than a year away on Mars. Step one, go to the moon, use it as your technical proving ground to go to Mars. We may have a lunar economy."