Statements by U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll this week ignited speculations on social media about what some suspected to involve secretive U.S. military operations on the Moon.
“Young Americans across the country get to see all of the amazing things that the Army has done, whether it’s helping with floods in North Carolina or wildfires in California,” Driscoll said during an appearance on Fox News.
However, it was what he said next that raised so many eyebrows.
“We talked to an astronaut yesterday who’s on the Moon who’s a soldier,” Driscoll said, “including actually going to war and fighting to defend the freedoms that are, uh, that make our nation so great.”
An Astronaut and U.S. Soldier on the Moon?
Understandably, Driscoll’s comments led to confusion online. Some media coverage of his surprising statement appeared to infer that the alleged “revelations” could point to a deeper reality, with one news source claiming that the context in which the statement was made seemed to “offer no alternative explanation for what Driscoll could have meant.”
Elsewhere, many on social media questioned whether it had merely been a slip of the tongue or if Driscoll had unintentionally leaked something more substantive.
“Did he misspeak or does he know something we don’t know?” one user posted on X.
“Did he clarify his statement later?” asked author and illustrator Adam Bray in a separate posting on X, prompting the social media site’s AI Chatbot Grok to examine whether the claim was true.
“NASA and Army websites have no mention of current lunar missions involving soldiers, and the Artemis program doesn’t indicate human presence yet,” read a response from Grok to X users asking for clarification on Driscoll’s statement. “No clarification from Driscoll or the Army has surfaced as of June 12, 2025.”
Humans in Space: Here’s What We Know
Currently, there are only 13 humans known to be operating anywhere in space, all of which are aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Among them is U.S. astronaut Anne McClaine, who, as of the time of publication, has spent a combined total of more than 294 days in space throughout various missions.
Along with her spaceflight experience, McClain is also a colonel in the U.S. Army. She is presently serving as Commander of SpaceX Crew-10 and previously served as an Expedition 73 Flight Engineer. According to NASA, Crew-10 is the 10th crew rotation mission of SpaceX’s human space transportation system and its 11th flight with astronauts.
Launched on March 14, 2025, 23:03:48 UTC, McClain was joined by astronauts Nichole Ayers, Kirill Peskov, and Takuya Onishi, who also support the mission.
Obviously, Driscoll’s statement on Fox News regarding an astronaut “who’s a soldier” had been referring to a call he had on Monday with McClain. He simply misspoke by referring to her as being “on the Moon” when he had intended to convey that she is currently on board the ISS.
Secret Space Program Conspiracies
For many years, conspiracy theories involving a “secret space program” have circulated online and in popular books and documentary films, alleging that NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense may have been involved in secret space exploration efforts that have officially remained off the books.
NASA indeed collaborates with government agencies like the Department of Defense on classified space programs. Its policies prohibit the release of classified information to the public or unauthorized individuals under past directives, namely NASA Procedural Requirements (NPR) 1600.2 titled “NASA Classified National Security Information” (which can be found by searching the NASA Online Directives Information System).
While it is also true that many space launches include classified payloads, and that a limited number of contingency missions dating back to the Apollo missions were later revealed to have had classified components, most of NASA’s operations in space, including its crewed spaceflight missions, have been known to the public.
By contrast, no credible evidence supports the claims of large-scale secret operations in space, whether undertaken by NASA or any other U.S. government agencies, that align with popular conspiracy theories involving a “secret” space program.
While speaking with McClain earlier this week, Driscoll told the astronaut she had “absolutely taken the cake for having the coolest and most unique job of any soldier I’ve talked to so far.”
Although few would dispute that McClain has a very cool job, it will probably still be a while before her work with the U.S. Space Program takes her all the way to the Moon.
Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. He can be reached by email at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow his work at micahhanks.com and on X: @MicahHanks.
memoment editorial note: This article examines the cutting-edge world of military technology, DARPA breakthroughs, and secret research programs monitored globally by memoment.
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Original article: https://thedebrief.org/u-s-army-secretary-refers-to-astronaut-on-the-moon-whos-a-soldier-igniting-secret-space-program-conspiracies/
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