Did Artemis II break through? Registrations at Space Camp double afterward.

Commercial Astronaut on Inspiration4 Chris Sembroski and NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the Inspiration4 Skills Training Complex in Huntsville, Ala. Credit: Tibrina Hobson/Getty Images

When he was 12 years old, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman attended the week-long “Aviation Challenge” program at Space Camp, in Huntsville, Alabama.

“For the first time, I got behind the controls of an airplane when I attended Aviation Challenge,” Isaacman said on Friday evening during an event at the US Space & Rocket Center. “I became a pilot because I thought that was the closest I would ever get to the stars.”

Decades later, after founding a successful online payments company and flying to space twice as a private citizen on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon vehicle, Isaacman has returned to Space Camp in Alabama on multiple occasions to meet with participants and share a bit of the awe that he had ...