Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) told teenagers at an eclipse-viewing event on Monday that the moon was made up of “gases” — and despite that, she wanted to be among the first who had a chance to live there.
Jackson Lee, 74, addressed a crowd of teenaged students outside of Houston’s Booker T. Washington High School — and she delivered a series of scientifically dubious comments ahead of the celestial phenomenon.
WATCH:
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee (D):
The moon is "made up mostly of gases" so we can soon live inside it, unlike the sun which is "almost" too hot to go near. pic.twitter.com/bSd9zXcEPo
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) April 9, 2024
“You’ve heard the word ‘full moon.’ Sometimes you need to take the opportunity just to come out and see a full moon is that complete rounded circle, which is made up mostly of gases,” Jackson Lee began. “And that’s why the question is why or how could we as humans live on the moon? Are the gases such that we could do that?”
“The sun is a mighty powerful heat, but it’s almost impossible to go near the sun. The moon is more manageable,” the Texas legislator continued. “And you will see in a moment — not a moment, you will see in a couple of years, that NASA is going back to the moon.”
Jackson Lee also claimed that the moon gave off “unique light and energy” and, according to a report from the New York Post, gave an even stranger description for the reason the solar eclipse was happening.
“I don’t think we’ve been on the moon the last 50 years. So we will be landing on the moon. What you’ll see today will be the closest distance that the moon has ever been in the last 20 years. Which means that’s why they will shut the light down because they will be close to the Earth,” she said, making no mention of the alignment of the sun and moon that caused the eclipse.
“I don’t know about you, I want to be first in line to know how to live and to be able to survive on the moon. That’s another planet which we’re going to see shortly,” she added.
Jackson Lee, who previously served as the top Democrat on the House Science Committee’s space subcommittee, also once famously asked whether the Mars Pathfinder had been successful in capturing photos of the American flag she said was planted there in 1969 by NASA astronaut Neil Armstrong.