NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, Rep. Carlos Gimenez and Rep. Adriano Espaillat, NCAA President Charlie Baker

0:00I'm Ed O 'Keefe in Washington, and this week on Face the Nation, as America celebrates its 250th birthday, we'll try to put politics aside and focus on some of the things that make this nation so unique. Despite record-breaking temperatures sweeping across much of the country, Americans came out over the weekend to honor 250 years of independence. Fireworks, parades, flyovers, and red, white, and blue were all on display as we saluted a country that, despite being one of the younger nations of the world, has one of the longest continuing governments. There is no place we cannot go. There is no goal we cannot reach.

0:42And there is nothing that Americans cannot do. And we're proving that right now. We'll take a look at one thing that is proving difficult to fix, immigration. Two members of Congress who immigrated here and became U.S. citizens, Florida Republican Carlos Jimenez and New York Democrat Adriano Espayan tell us their stories and why immigrants are so important to America's future. Plus, space. As America reboots its quest to lead the world in space exploration, we'll reflect on our history and take a look at what's ahead with NASA Administrator Jarrett Isingham. And sports. Americans are driven by competition and winning, and few things unite us as much as the love of the game.

1:29We'll talk about changes in college sports, the proving ground for young American athletes, with the head of the NCAA, or Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker. All this and more just ahead on Face the Nation.

1:57Good morning and welcome to Face the Nation. Margaret is off. I'm Ed O 'Keefe. Neither rain nor lightning nor 100 degree plus heat could shut down the festivities in the nation's capital Saturday night. But all three forces combined prompted officials to evacuate thousands from the National Mall for hours until the worst of the bad weather had passed. Crowds took shelter in nearby museums and government agency buildings. But they returned to watch President Trump's speech and what was considered the world's largest fireworks display ever, which lasted until well after midnight. As we reflect on what makes America such a powerful force.

2:32I hereby declare on oath. We're reminded that we're a nation built by immigrants. So why is it so hard to fix our immigration system? Well, late last week, we spoke with two members of Congress who both came to the U.S. as young children. Here's our conversation with Florida Republican Carlos Jimenez and New York Democrat Adriano Espaya. Congressman Jimenez, you were almost seven years old when your family fled from Cuba at the start of the Castro regime. What do you remember about those early days in Florida? Well, I remember that we all went to one house. My uncle, my aunt were kind enough to take us in.

3:12There were about 21 people in that house. And I remember vividly my first day going to school. The day before, they took me to a parochial school. And then the nuns saying that tomorrow was my first day of school. That was my first word in English. until then I only spoke Spanish and so that I vividly remember and then the early days there it's like it's like a blur obviously you know but but yeah it was it was completely different than my experiences had been in Cuba. And Congressman Espallada as I understand you were about nine when you came to the United States from the Dominican Republic. I imagine New York City was a bit different back then.

3:58Of course, the weather was cold, obviously. Remember the cold weather? We lived with our grandparents who had a four and a half bedroom apartment in Washington Heights. And we got there in December. And of course, we went to school. I remember sitting in the back of the classroom for a year or more, not knowing really a word of English. but surely and slowly we acclimated and here we are. Do either of you remember your parents ever explaining why they wanted to become Americans? My grandmother was the first one to become a U.S. citizen, and she was so proud of it. And I remember that she spoke about it, about how great this nation is and how it gave us a new opportunity of moving forward.

4:53but she was really proud of becoming an American citizen. And I think it translated then back down to all of us. My parents were seeking freedom, not only for themselves, but for us, his children, my sister and I, to give us the opportunity to live in a land of freedom. I recall one day I asked him, hey, why is it that we came to the United States a little bit older? And he told me a story about how I had come home, and I'd asked him a question, and to him it felt like we were being indoctrinated into communism and he decided right then and there that we had to leave. Both of you represent areas where there are many people under temporary protected status.

5:37But the Supreme Court in recent days ruled that about 356 ,000 or so people from Haiti and Syria are going to lose their TPS. and then that decision of course follows the trump administration's decision to cancel their temporary legal protection this issue is perhaps most acute in south florida given the haitian community congressman humane i'm curious what should the secretary do what should the administration do now with these hundreds of thousands of people in the case of haiti uh without a doubt you know haiti is a failed state and i think that um deporting haitians that are under tps right now back to haiti would be a huge mistake i mean that's the reason why tps was established to begin with just like with venezuelans if venezuelans lose their tps status which they have too we should reinstate that because of the devastation caused by these earthquakes that that happened last week and so you know tps should be should not be abused tps is what it says temporary protective status and if you're here for a number of years you should change your status from TPS to something else.

6:41But by the same token, it is meant to safeguard those that are fleeing countries which are either failed states and there would be at risk of going back to them, or countries that really can't handle them right now, as the case of Venezuela. What might be the easiest, fastest, bipartisan fix Congress could make to deal with immigration? I believe very strongly that it should be bipartisan. And of course, there are three particular items that I think are easy to fix. Dreamers is one of them. These are young people that came here when they were one, two years old. Many of them don't speak the language of their homeland or have no connections whatsoever with the country where they were born.

7:23Yet there are Americans, but for one thing, a green car. It's a fixed number of them. Most people agree that they should be let in. They should be allowed to stay here. So regularizing them is one. Farm workers, many of whom are not going to the fields to work because they're afraid they're going to be arrested and deported. We need them. And then keeping families together is important because a family that's divided, that's fractured, is a weak family, and many weak families make up a weak nation. Congressman Jimenez, any of those on your list? Look, I agree with a lot of what the congressman has said.

8:01The problem of immigration got exacerbated because of the open borders that we had during the Biden years. And you had millions and millions of people coming into the United States, and it really drove the issue of immigration home. And I thought we were getting closer to some kind of a solution until that happened. The borders are now closed. And I've always said that once you secure the borders, then we can have an honest debate about the people that are here, the immigrants that are here. Those are undocumented. And I think that we can reach a solution. And those that have been here for years that have been working, are part of the community, that are part of the economy, we need to find a way to normalize them.

8:43Doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to be citizens at the end of the day, but to normalize them so they can come out of the shadows, pay taxes, and then live their life without having fear of somebody coming up and taking them away after 20-something years and separating from their children that they've had during that time. And so we have to find a solution. I think that the solution could be bipartisan, but it also seems, you know, when the Democrats were in control, it didn't happen. When we were in control, it didn't happen. It's got to happen. What is your message to someone, perhaps Congressman Jimenez, that is on the outside looking in, who might want to come to the United States and build a better life?

9:30What would be your message to them? My message is to do it the right way, and then you will be welcome with open arms. There's a lot of skills that we need here still in the United States, even though we want to make sure that Americans get those jobs. But sometimes, you know, you do need skills from outside. And by the way, it's not a bad thing to get new ideas, new perspectives coming into the United States from all around the world, because that's what makes America the greatest country in the world. And Congressman Espaya? This nation, as we celebrate the 250th anniversary, still has promise.

10:08And I think immigration has been a central part of our ability to move forward as a nation. So I ask those that want to come to our nation that bring your ideas, bring your innovativeness, bring your talents, bring your energy, the energy that has displayed itself throughout decades and throughout our history. There's been no period in American history that has not been pushed by immigration forward. Even in our most difficult times, it is the influx of new ideas and new energy that makes our country different. And of course, this is a great experiment and everybody wants to come to America. Do it the right way.

10:54There are channels through which you can do it. We will continue to welcome people from all over the world. This is a nation that still has a lot to offer. It's still relatively a very young nation and one that I think has a lot of promise towards the future. I'm happy that my parents, my grandparents, who were both factory workers, brought us here to America. What a great promise. What a great nation. Face the Nation will be back in one minute with a look at a bright part of our past and our future. Space. Stay with us. One of the most unifying events so far this year was April's successful launch of Artemis II.

11:39A mission that had many of us mesmerized for days and introduced a new generation of Americans to one of the bright spots when it comes to American ingenuity. Here's senior national correspondent Mark Strassman. It just went sci-fi.

11:53Jared Isaacman:This has, uh, it just looks unreal. America's pioneering spirit, undeniable, unrelenting. It fueled Artemis II's moonshot back in April. It has defined our country for 250 years, from sailing ship to spaceship. What have you been most struck by? We have seen and felt things that we have never felt before. We felt it with Alan Shepard, the first American in space. John Glenn, the first American in orbit. Oh, that view is tremendous. And throughout NASA's early programs, Mercury, Gemini, Apollo. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.

12:36Earth stood still and felt it in 1969. Watching in awe, two Americans become history's first moonwalkers.

12:44Jared Isaacman:Engine stop. We copy you down, Eagle. Boy. We're going to be busy for a minute. Tranquility base here. The Eagle has landed. Roger, Twink. Tranquility, we copy you on the ground. You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. Retired astronaut Charlie Duke was the voice in Houston's mission control, talking to Apollo 11's crew. It really, to me, brought the U.S. together and was very significant. Especially given the turmoil of that decade. Right. We're on from America's first space shuttle. Over the decades, America invited along international partners to help explore the cosmos, from the space shuttle to the International Space Station, from Hubble and other universe probing satellites to robotic explorers on Mars.

13:39Along the way, moments when the human cost was unthinkable. Challenger in 1986.

13:46Jared Isaacman:Obviously a major malfunction. Columbia in 2003. Moments that paused our space exploration, but did not stop it. In today's commercial era of space, companies often lead the way rather than countries. SpaceX, Blue Origin, Boeing. And after a nine-year gap, we're again launching American astronauts from U.S. soil. Former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine back in 2018. Some of this is American pride. Prestige. I like to use the word prestige. Great nations should be able to launch their own astronauts into space. Booster ignition. Launching them to the moon and back. Now bound for the moon. Yes, space is hard.

14:31But America's space story would feel familiar to her original settlers. Determination leading to discovery. It is absolutely spectacular, surreal. There's no adjectives. I'm going to need to invent some new ones to describe what we are looking at out this window. Our Mark Strassman reporting. Thanks to him for that. We turn now to NASA Administrator Jarek Isaacman, who's back on the ground after his 4th of July flyover. Yes, he was one of those piloting one of those jets right there. I think you're going to stand and face the nation's history as the first to ever pilot a flyover and then show up for the show.

15:07So we appreciate it. Thanks for being here.

15:08Jared Isaacman:I was grateful to participate in such a historic event, as was yesterday, and to be here today and talk about such an amazing subject. Yeah, and that's part of why we wanted you here, because I think we've reflected on the last few months about how Artemis especially really seemed to bring the country and to some extent the world back together to focus on this common journey back into the great beyond. Why, in your view, is it so important that America maintain a presence in space? Well, I've been lucky to be in space twice and have that perspective and an appreciation for just the scale of it all.

15:42Jared Isaacman:I mean, the best way to describe it, like we are understanding our progress on what I think is the greatest adventure in human history is literally just dipping your toe in the grandest ocean of all. I mean, just an appreciation. I mean, we are lucky. We are lucky that we have been gifted a moon that's four and a half days away as a proving ground to continue to venture out. And we've just begun it all. I mean, all that we stand to learn from a scientific perspective, economic potential. I'll tell you, there will be a lunar economy someday. We'll be mining asteroids at some point. So it's not just scientific.

16:13Jared Isaacman:There's economic. There is a massive inspirational component to it. I mean, we talk about the world pausing and watching those Artemis II astronauts, right? But how many children were watching, your children, grandchildren that were watching that now want to grow up and contribute to this great endeavor as engineers and scientists and astronauts? I mean, certainly a price worth paying. But it is only truly just the beginning. We barely understand our solar, you know, it's in our solar system, let alone all the other stars in the Milky Way galaxy or all the other galaxies out there. I want to ask you about a few things facing NASA right now.

16:43First off, in the last few days, you've launched a bit of a repair mission with private companies to work on what's called the Swift telescope that tracks gamma rays and has been falling lower and lower, closer to the Earth's atmosphere for years. How is that mission progressing now about three days into it?

16:58Jared Isaacman:Well, we're still getting data from it. It is an extremely fascinating mission. It is a rescue mission for a scientific instrument that's up there. So, you know, in the past, space was extremely expensive. You'd have to spend a very long time building your instruments, you know, lots of layers of redundancy, which just adds more cost and more delays. And now we can take advantage of the healthiest commercial launch market in the history of America's space program. Lots of different providers that can do things inexpensively and we can experiment. So we have a telescope or a scientific instrument that's in some degree of distress right now.

17:31Jared Isaacman:And for a very low cost, we can experiment with industry to launch a mission to rendezvous with it, dock, boost it and give it a new lease on life. Now, it's very early in the mission. As you said, it's only been a couple of days. We're still establishing comms with it. And it's also very experimental. So I wouldn't have expected it to come out of the gate and be perfect. But we'll learn more in the days ahead. And if it works, this gives us options for Hubble and other scientific instruments. And it's about a$30 million price tag, which for NASA is affordable or certainly lower cost than many of the other projects.

18:01Of course.

18:01Jared Isaacman:I mean, you think about something like now James Webb, it wouldn't be applicable to because it's based out at a Lagrange point. But I mean, that was an extremely expensive, multi-multi-billion dollar, almost a multi-decade mission. Now, instead of replacing it with another multi-billion dollar mission, if you could launch something for$30 million to go up and enhance it, you know, give it a new lease on life, that's money worth spent. Now, again, you wouldn't do it with James Webb, but this is a good example of a mission where you could test out the capability. And who knows the value it'll have in years ahead.

18:28In the last century, Russia was our biggest space competitor. In this one, arguably, it's China. And you've warned repeatedly that we may now be in a race with them that measures not in years, but in months. And so it's against that warning. I ask you a few questions now about Artemis III. You're preparing to take off the next Artemis mission next year. You have had, however, some setbacks. Are you still confident it's going to go off the schedule?

18:52Jared Isaacman:Well, I would just say first, it's not arguably like there. We are very much in a space race right now. And the Chinese are moving at incredible speeds. And they are certainly capable of doing what the Soviets were not during the first space race. The Chinese will land their taikonauts on the moon. There's no question. The question is, will the United States return before them? And will we do so in a different way this time? Will we build the base, establish that enduring presence? I think the answer is yes. President Trump gave us a national space policy my first day on the job. He gave us a$10 billion-plus-up investment, a historic investment in the Working Family Tax Cut Act.

19:26Jared Isaacman:That's what allowed us to add the Artemis III mission next year. So we are going back. It will be an unbelievable display. Last night's fireworks show, unbelievable display. I'm telling you, in a very short span of time on Artemis III, you're going to see the three most powerful rockets in the world. NASA's SLS, SpaceX's Starship, Blue Origin's New Glenn. and then you're going to have the landers come together in Earth orbit, test out their capabilities, very a la Apollo 9, give us the confidence in our landers for Artemis 4 in 2028. This is an achievable plan to put astronauts back on the surface of the moon.

19:54Jared Isaacman:And in parallel, we're launching missions on a near-monthly cadence in 2027 to build the moon base so we have that enduring presence, that proving ground for Mars. The goal is to get Artemis 4 to the moon by 2028. The Chinese are thinking about 2030. Any delay potentially puts us too close to their 2030 goal. Well, they said before 2030. I want to clarify. That's why I say this is months, not years right now. They are thinking in 2029. We're saying end of 2028 is when we're targeting the landing. That is months, not years. But we have an achievable plan. We have a national space policy. We have bipartisan support from Congress.

20:26Jared Isaacman:We have the best and brightest from around the nation that did this before and we'll do it again. One of the issues in getting ready for these next missions, of course, is what happened with Blue Origin's new Glenn rocket a few months ago. It exploded at the end of May. The CEO has acknowledged they don't know the cause yet. They're still trying to figure it out, but they still hope to fly and be able to relaunch later this year. Have you gotten any updates on what happened with that explosion? And is it important to know what happened for sure before they attempt any other launches? Well, NASA has been playing a role in this from the beginning.

20:58Jared Isaacman:So we were I was on site with the team the next morning after that that setback. I was there with Jeff Bezos and their CEO, Dave Limp on the matter. We've helped provide subject matter experts to Blue Origin. We're helping with anomaly investigation on the rocket. We're helping with pad rebuild. Most importantly, we're helping continue to move the lander along. We can't slow down there. Of course, they're going to get their arms around the anomaly. They've honed in already on a potential engine issue. They're going to solve that. Right. You go back to the late 1950s, early 1960s. 1960s. You can see YouTube videos of NASA rockets having issues all the time.

21:30Jared Isaacman:It's how we learn. No one got hurt in this. So they're going to learn. They're going to fix their engine. They're going to rebuild their path. They're going to get back to launching rockets. NASA's there to help. And like I said, it's the healthiest launch market in the history of America's space program. We have lots of providers that can contribute. We've got to keep the lander progressing and ensure we have the right outcome, which is a successful Artemis 3 mission. And then we land on Artemis 4. In our remaining seconds, you mentioned moon bases. By 2029, you want to have humans living on the moon for extended periods of time, right?

21:56Jared Isaacman:Well, I would say starting in 2027, we want to start building the base. In 2028, when the NASA astronauts get to the surface of the moon, there's going to be a buggy there, a lunar terrain vehicle. There's going to be the start of infrastructure. 2029, you're going to have more infrastructure. But I would say early 2030s, the moon is going to be like the International Space Station. You're going to have crews that are there on pretty extended periods of time as we learn in that environment and prepare for Mars. Lots of money required, lots of work to be done, but we appreciate you being your NASA Administrator Jared Geisinger.