NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, U.S. Senator Rob Portman and U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur visited the NASA agency’s Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field in Cleveland and Plum Brook Station in Sandusky on Wednesday, Aug. 21, to view progress on the agency’s Artemis program.

They began their visit at Lewis Field for a tour of Glenn’s Electric Propulsion and Power Lab, where NASA engineers are working with Maxar Technologies to develop and test the power and propulsion element for the Gateway, NASA’s home base for astronaut expeditions to the Moon’s surface and future human missions to Mars.

Bridenstine was to discuss the center’s role in landing humans on the Moon by 2024 and establishing sustainable lunar exploration by 2028. Following the media roundtable, Portman and Kaptur were to tour the Stirling Research Lab, where NASA is exploring surface power systems to enable a sustained human presence on the Moon, Mars and other planets.

Bridenstine, Portman and Kaptur also planned to visit Glenn’s aeronautics test facilities and some of the world’s largest and most capable space environment simulation facilities. During the tour, they were to observe preparations for upcoming tests of the Orion spacecraft for the Artemis 1 mission.