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NASA\u2019s Boeing<\/a> Co. rocket just propelled astronauts farther into space than ever before. The Trump administration is already looking to competitors for a replacement.\u00a0<\/p>\n About a week before the $24 billion Space Launch System pushed the four crew members of the Artemis II mission around the moon, NASA asked rivals what options they could offer for its ambitious plan of future lunar trips. That call, echoed almost immediately in the White House\u2019s budget request, put a big question mark on the future of Boeing\u2019s beleaguered rocket after roughly a decade of development.\u00a0<\/p>\n The fate of the program \u2014 worth tens of billions of dollars over the next few years \u2014 has become a key test for Jared Isaacman, the billionaire fintech entrepreneur who President Donald Trump named to run NASA last year, in his efforts to make the space agency faster and more efficient. He\u2019s counting on new commercial companies like SpaceX<\/a> to provide cheaper alternatives to the costly systems like SLS developed by legacy players like Boeing and Lockheed Martin<\/a> Corp.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause that program draws on such history, has contractors, hundreds of subcontractors, tens of thousands of people, it\u2019s expensive,\u201d Isaacman said in February. \u201cIt\u2019s not the vehicle that you are going to take to and from the moon a couple of times a year as you build out a moon base the way the president wants.\u201d<\/p>\n That network of support \u2014 Artemis counts suppliers\u00a0in all 50 states<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 has helped the program survive efforts to kill it over years of delays and cost overruns. The administration\u2019s attempt to phase out the SLS and the Lockheed-made Orion crew capsule in its budget request last year ran into fierce opposition on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers ultimately succeeded in blocking the cuts. Last week, the White House signaled that it will try again to find commercial replacements.<\/p>\n With a 2028 deadline looming to land astronauts on the moon before Trump leaves office and China planning its own mission by the end of the decade, Isaacman is under pressure to deliver. Although legacy providers like Boeing have struggled to meet deadlines in the past, their technologies are proven. New rivals like SpaceX and Blue Origin have yet to show their rockets can get to the moon.<\/p>\n Read More:\u00a0Why the US, China and Others Are Racing to the Moon: Explainer<\/a><\/p>\n Isaacman has been turning up the heat.\u00a0<\/p>\n In February, he announced that NASA would be\u00a0canceling<\/a>\u00a0Boeing\u2019s multi-billion dollar contract for a more powerful upper stage for the SLS rocket despite years of development. In March, he announced a pause on Gateway, a planned space station in lunar orbit, leaving international partners and companies involved\u00a0scrambling<\/a>\u00a0to adjust. In its place, he outlined plans for a base on the moon\u2019s surface and an accelerated slate of missions to build it.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHe is really trying to rely heavily on commercial space and competition,\u201d said Dave Cavossa, president of the Commercial Space Federation, which represents companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin. \u201cI think it\u2019s the most pro-commercial administration, the most pro-change administration leadership we\u2019ve ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n Artemis was created in the first Trump administration out of the remnants of a NASA program that had been cancelled by his predecessor but managed to limp along thanks to continued funding from Congress. By the time Trump returned to the White House last year, the holdups and price tag had grown.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n