Trump opens NASA's MAX POWER expo — and a 2028 CapeWeek airshow is announced
From the Space digest for Nov 7, 2026
What happened: President Donald Trump visited Kennedy Space Center on November 6 to help open MAX POWER, a two-day aerospace expo running November 7–8 with a military aircraft air show, tech expo and visitor-complex access, declaring "NASA is back" and predicting the event will "be bigger and bigger every year." At the gathering NASA announced CapeWeek, a new global aerospace and technology exposition to be held on the former Space Shuttle landing runway from March 27 to April 2, 2028. Trump said it would become the largest airshow in the world, outgrowing the Paris Air Show, and organizers hope it eventually draws more than 500,000 people a year; Administrator Jared Isaacman called it "the greatest exhibition of American aerospace capabilities." Artemis II astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Jeremy Hansen appeared, and Trump said "next summer" Artemis III will carry astronauts into orbit on a complex mission to test the next lunar landers, adding that American astronauts would return to the surface of the Moon before the end of his term.
What's genuinely new: CapeWeek now exists as an announced event with dates, a venue and attendance ambitions — the Shuttle landing strip recast as a recurring showcase Trump described as "a show the likes of which has never been done before." Inside the Vehicle Assembly Building, Artemis III's solid rocket boosters and core stage are stacked together, per an NASASpaceflight tour during the expo's broadcast. A Moon Base news conference is scheduled for 5 p.m. Eastern on November 7, streamed on NASA's X account and YouTube, with a planned U.S. Space Academy update from Deputy Administrator Matt Anderson also on the program.
Watch: the Moon Base news conference readout, the U.S. Space Academy update, and CapeWeek exhibitor and attendance milestones toward 2028.
Links: Starlust · NASASpaceflight Day-1 broadcast on X · NASASpaceflight on X · Nov 7, 10:23 AM ET