On Friday afternoon, Bill Maher stood in entrance of his Actual Time viewers and famous it was 4 o’clock Pacific time — about an hour from the Artemis II splashdown. Then he dismissed your entire mission. Roughly an hour later, the capsule punched by way of Earth’s environment at 25,000 miles per hour, its warmth defend absorbing temperatures hotter than lava, earlier than splashing down within the Pacific off San Diego.
4 astronauts — Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen — had simply accomplished a 10-day journey across the moon, touring farther from Earth than any people in historical past.
Maher missed the touchdown. He was busy calling the moon a rock.
“Let’s Repair the Sh*t Present Right here on Earth”
Earlier this week, Trump threatened to wipe out Iran’s “complete civilization.” He mentioned: I’m not bluffing. Did you see what I did to Atlantic Metropolis? pic.twitter.com/4eGoM1JhQx
— Invoice Maher (@billmaher) April 11, 2026
Throughout his monologue, Maher instructed his viewers he didn’t perceive the joy. In all places he went, folks requested if he’d seen the images. He’d seen Earth earlier than. Folks saved telling him the moon was a stepping stone to Mars, and he didn’t need to go there both. Nothing on the market besides different rocks.
Panelist Paul Rieckhoff — a veteran and founding father of Impartial Veterans of America who has spent years advocating for troops coming house to damaged methods — pushed again. He mentioned Artemis II impressed hope. Maher wasn’t moved. Ten extra miles, he mentioned. We’ve been to the moon earlier than.
What One Launch Prices
Here’s what it prices to ship 4 folks across the moon and convey them again: $4.1 billion. That’s the per-launch value of NASA’s Area Launch System and Orion spacecraft, based on a NASA Inspector Normal audit. The White Home’s personal 2026 price range proposal known as the SLS “grossly costly” and famous it had exceeded its unique price range by 140 %.
Here’s what else $4.1 billion may do.
The Division of Veterans Affairs’ complete annual price range for homeless veteran applications is $3.2 billion. That covers outreach, shelter, and supportive housing for the greater than 32,000 veterans who’re homeless on any given night time in America. One Artemis launch exceeds that price range by practically a billion {dollars}.
The Flint water disaster — a catastrophe that poisoned roughly 100,000 residents, lots of them youngsters — required an estimated $1.5 billion to restore the town’s water infrastructure. One launch may have mounted Flint’s pipes with $2.6 billion to spare.
At a nationwide common of $300,000 per unit, one launch may fund the development of greater than 13,000 inexpensive houses.
What the Entire Program Prices
Zoom out, and the mathematics will get louder.
Complete spending on the Artemis program has exceeded $93 billion by way of 2025, based on a NASA Inspector Normal estimate. Analysts mission it can surpass $100 billion as further missions proceed.
The Division of Housing and City Growth has estimated it will value $20 billion to finish homelessness in america. Lower than 1 / 4 of what has already been spent getting again to the moon’s neighborhood.
A further $9.6 billion would supply housing placements to each family presently staying in a homeless shelter in America, based on the Nationwide Alliance to Finish Homelessness. That’s roughly the price of two Artemis launches.
The $15 billion the Bipartisan Infrastructure Regulation put aside for lead pipe alternative nationwide — protecting 9 million lead service traces — expires in 2026. The Trump administration has not dedicated to upholding the EPA rule that requires these pipes to get replaced inside a decade.
The Query Washington Is Already Preventing Over
Maher could not notice it, however he’s asking the identical query dividing Congress.
The Trump administration’s proposed 2027 price range would slash NASA funding by roughly 25 %. Congress rejected practically similar cuts for the present price range cycle, defending Artemis with bipartisan assist. The political argument rests closely on competitors with China, which has introduced plans for a everlasting lunar base by 2030.
In the meantime, the identical price range proposes cuts to the home applications that serve the folks Maher says ought to come first.
Rieckhoff pushed again on Maher’s cynicism Friday night time. However Rieckhoff has additionally spent his profession arguing that the federal government isn’t doing sufficient for veterans who come house to search out the methods ready for them are damaged. The VA’s homeless applications price range — the one which falls in need of a single Artemis launch — is the system these veterans depend on.
No person on the panel talked about that quantity. Nevertheless it was sitting proper there between them.
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