NASA's top official was at Morehead State University this week to serve to survey the work being done at the school's Space Science Center and give students a picture of how America is advancing in space exploration.

Mackenzie Spink tells us more about the relationship between the moon, Mars and Morehead.

NASA Administrator Jason Isaacman says now is the most exciting time for space exploration since the Kennedy era.

This year, the Artemis two astronauts went further into space than ever before on a trip around the moon and back.

But Isaacman says our work with the moon is far from over.

This time, we are not just going back to the flags and footprints, we are going back to stay.

We are going back to build a new base.

In fact, this December, just a matter of weeks, we're going to launch the first moon based mission, laying the figurative first brick on the lunar south pole.

The lunar south pole has the crater ridges that will give us near eternal access to solar power, and the water ice that we can use to save and longer.

We can be there for the economic and scientific potential, but ultimately, this will serve as the technical proving ground for us to master the skills for where we go next, which is Mars.

Hundreds of students came to hear from administrator Isaacman and astronaut Stephen Bowen as they shared about the future of NASA, and answered questions from the room.

Morehead State University is a NASA space grant university and a site in its deep space network.

The degree that students gain here in this program is valuable in the commercial world.

Companies are located near this campus in order to take advantage of the human manpower that is represented on this campus.

With a great deal of excellence.

The companies tell me that the quality of the graduates in this space science program is fairly unique.

MSU has participated in multiple satellite missions, including the Lunar Ice Cube project in 2022, a satellite built by faculty and students that went to the moon in search of water and other resources.

You've been building spacecraft.

You've been operating deep space communication capabilities, infrastructure, contributing to consequential mission for for years here.

Think about what that means.

I mean, the moon is not some distant idea to this university.

Isaacman says he expects humanity will reach Mars in the lifetime of the students at Morehead, calling them the Artemis generation.

Before then, he says, space scientists, like those who graduate from MSU, will soon be working and living on the moon.

We need engineers.

We need scientists.

We need technicians.

We need entrepreneurs, researchers, operators, explorers, any astronauts and you could all live.

Or maybe you could work on the moon base operated for Mission Control.

If you don't want to go there, you can walk on the lunar surface designing instruments that reveal other distinct habitable worlds.

You could be the nuclear engineer building the spacecraft to take us in the next destination.

On what is this endless adventure of discovery?

And decades from now, when history looks back on this moment, a moment when he became a true space faring civilization, you will be remembered as the generation that made it happen.

Congressman Hal Rogers is the chairman of the U.S.

House Appropriations Subcommittee for Commerce, justice, science, and Related Agencies, which funds NASA.

He helped to start the space science program at Morehead State, and presented them with a check for $7.5 million at this week's event for Kentucky Edition, I'm Mackenzie Spink.

Two years ago, Morehead State University was called the savior of the Odyssey lunar lander mission after the spacecraft tipped over while landing and lost connection with Earth.

MSU 21ft satellite was the only site able to reestablish the connection and retrieve the mission data.