Early history[edit]

The Artemis program incorporates several major components of previous canceled NASA programs and missions, including the Constellation program and the Asteroid
Redirect Mission. Originally legislated by the NASA Authorization Act of 2005, Constellation included the development of Ares I, Ares V, and the Orion Crew Exploration
Vehicle. The program ran from the early 2000s until 2010.[18]

In May 2009, President Barack Obama established the Augustine Committee to take into account several objectives including support for the International Space Station,
development of missions beyond low Earth orbit (including the Moon, Mars, and near-Earth objects), and utilization of the commercial space industry within defined budget
limits.[19] The committee concluded that the Constellation program was massively underfunded and that a 2020 Moon landing was impossible. Constellation was
subsequently put on hold.[20]

On 15 April 2010, President Obama spoke at the Kennedy Space Center, announcing the administration's plans for NASA and cancelling the non-Orion elements of
Constellation on the premise that the program had become nonviable.[21] He instead proposed US$6 billion in additional funding and called for development of a new heavy
lift rocket program to be ready for construction by 2015 with crewed missions to Mars orbit by the mid-2030s. [22]

On 11 October 2010, President Obama signed into law the NASA Authorization Act of 2010, which included requirements for the immediate development of the Space
Launch System as a follow-on launch vehicle to the Space Shuttle, and continued development of a Crew Exploration Vehicle to be capable of supporting missions
beyond low Earth orbit starting in 2016, while making use of the workforce, assets, and capabilities of the Space Shuttle program, Constellation program, and other NASA
programs. The law also invested in space technologies and robotics capabilities tied to the overall space exploration framework, ensured continued support
for Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, Commercial Resupply Services, and expanded the Commercial Crew Development program.[23]

On 30 June 2017, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to re-establish the National Space Council, chaired by Vice-President Mike Pence. The Trump
administration's first budget request kept Obama-era human spaceflight programs in place: Commercial Resupply Services, Commercial Crew Development, the Space
Launch System, and the Orion spacecraft for deep space missions, while reducing Earth science research and calling for the elimination of NASA's educati