NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman tours Iowa State lab on Inspiration Tour

On Nov. 4, 2026, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman toured Iowa State University’s Make to Innovate program lab during the Iowa stop. NASA says the tour connects the public, industry, and academia with the people, technology, and organizations behind U.S. leadership in space and aeronautics. Space Grant brings students into nearly every stop across the country.

Students from Mission Moon, part of the Iowa Space Grant Consortium, presented research findings at the university. Groups including Cardinal Space Mining, CySat, and CyLaunch demonstrated agency-backed projects showing Iowa State’s link to NASA. At a well-attended town hall in Iowa, agency experts briefed students on Moon Base efforts and how their work can support future exploration.

Iowa Space Grant director Sara Nelson said NASA leadership’s visit to Iowa State provided a welcome opportunity. She described student excitement as incredible. She said research and innovation from Iowa can support Artemis and future NASA exploration. “We’re grateful for the opportunity to welcome NASA leadership to Iowa State,” said Sara Nelson, Iowa Space Grant director.

The administrator also reviewed space research and engineering capabilities at the University of Arizona backed by the Arizona Space Grant Consortium. The work includes satellite communications testing, complex optics for deep space, payloads built by students for high-altitude balloons, and small satellites. The agency notes that students at the school have long contributed to NASA missions and aerospace career connections. Ella Miller, a University of Arizona junior in mechanical engineering, said showing SEDS high-altitude ballooning research to Isaacman and NASA felt incredible.

Miller said the program gives students practical experience through a complete mission design cycle every semester. She said the work backs her goals for space research and internships.

On the Alaska leg, Isaacman toured Poker Flat Research Range. He also visited the Alaska Satellite Facility. Both belong to the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute. Poker Flat operates as the school’s scientific rocket launching facility.

At a science fair run by Alaska Space Grant, students shared work on hibernation biology. They also presented CubeSat (a type of small satellite) technology advancements. They learned about the Moon Base program and asked about chances for future innovators and explorers.

The stop in North Dakota concentrated on future exploration capabilities. Space Grant-funded research at the University of North Dakota is shaping future exploration across STEM fields. Student fellows and NASA interns presented projects on supercell mergers through satellite imagery, aurora borealis geomagnetic conditions, and in-situ resource utilization.

North Dakota Space Grant STEM ambassador students shared robotics and drone activities through Mission Moon. The effort focuses on Artemis initiatives with educators and colleges and universities across North Dakota. Malissa Reinhardt, a research fellow and STEM ambassador with North Dakota Space Grant Consortium, called speaking with the NASA Administrator an amazing opportunity. She said the administrator truly cared about student research and what students had to say.

MAX POWER will close the Inspiration Tour on Nov. 7 and 8. The public air and space innovation showcase shows NASA’s commitment to getting future innovators and explorers ready for humanity’s next giant leap. The national network of Space Grant consortia is expanding student opportunities in a changing aerospace workforce during what NASA calls a Golden Age of innovation and exploration. Students in the Space Grant program at schools nationwide are launching America’s future in space.

Isaacman went to Rocketdyne’s Redmond, Wash., facility on Sept. 4, 2026, as part of the nationwide Inspiration Tour’s Pacific Northwest leg. The stop aimed to strengthen connections between NASA and its industry partners. Nuclear power will play a major role in NASA’s future plans, Isaacman said.

Spacecraft powered by nuclear or fission technology can extend travel farther into the solar system as NASA pursues the secrets of the universe, Isaacman said. A Mars probe called SR-1 Freedom may serve as a pathfinder for NASA’s nuclear ambitions, with launch set for 2028. SR-1 Freedom will transport a fission reactor plus a nuclear electric propulsion system. The 12-kilowatt Advanced Electric Propulsion System Hall-thruster for SR-1 Freedom’s propulsion element came from Rocketdyne’s Redmond facility.

“We built here, in Redmond, the Advanced Electric Propulsion System,” Rocketdyne CEO Kristin Houston told GeekWire before Isaacman’s talk. She said her company wants to take part in the program, particularly in power conversion and power management and distribution design.

Isaacman visited Idaho National Laboratory during an August stop. Idaho National Laboratory will provide the 20-kilowatt reactor for the Mars probe. The agency and the U.S. Department of Energy are studying a nuclear reactor for the moon’s surface by 2030 under the Moon Base initiative.

The current schedule sets a crewed lunar landing for early 2028, with a moon base near the south pole slated for later in 2028. Artemis ranks as a leading NASA goal due in part to geopolitical competition, Isaacman said. He said the competition among great powers covers AI, energy, infrastructure, military concerns and space. He said being off target by months would leave few viable locations for a south pole moon base, and China is also pursuing those sites.

Federal officials including Isaacman toured Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. They also visited the Castle Air Museum in California’s Central Valley earlier that week. United Precision Corp. in Washougal, Wash., Seattle’s Museum of Flight, and Boeing’s Everett facility were also stops that day. A Friday tour stop included Stoke Space.