NASA’s Artemis program aims to return humans to the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years, with the first human landing currently scheduled for 2025. This goal is not just technically ambitious, but it’s also politically challenging. The Artemis program marks the first time since the Apollo program that an effort to send humans to the Moon has been supported by two successive U.S. presidents. As a scholar of international affairs who studies space, I’m interested in understanding what allowed the Artemis program to survive this political transition where others failed. My research suggests that this program...