U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin announced new initiatives to tackle microplastics in the human body and drinking water on Thursday.

Kennedy said the government will create a $144-million program called STOMP, for the systematic targeting of microplastics.

“We are focusing on three questions, what is in the body, what’s causing harm, and how do we remove it?” Kennedy said.

Zeldin said the environmental agency will add microplastics and pharmaceuticals to its list of concerning chemicals in drinking water.

“For the first time in the program’s history, EPA is designating both microplastics and pharmaceuticals as priority contaminant groups,” he said.

The two Cabinet members sat a table before a crowded room at EPA headquarters in Washington, flanked by microplastic researchers, including Marcus Ericsson, an environmental scientist and co-founder of the antiplastic Five Gyres Institute; Matthew Campin, a biomedical scientist at the University of New Mexico; and Leo Trasande, a pediatrician and public policy expert at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine and Wagner School of Public Service.

On either side of the table were two large posters that read “Confronting Microplastics” in capital letters.

Zeldin had been under fire by the movement known as MAHA, or Make America Health Again, in recent months over federal plans to loosen restrictions on harmful chemicals, and approve new pesticides — including two that contain what are internationally recognized as “forever chemicals,” linked to serious health risks.

Kennedy, who is the political face of the MAHA movement, has also been criticized for capitulating on issues he once embraced. In February, President Trump signed an executive order to shore up production of the herbicide glyphosate, for “national security and defense reasons.”

Kennedy publicly supported that decision and in a social media post said that while herbicides and pesticides were “toxic by design” and “put Americans at risk,” the food supply depends on them.

Glyphosate, known commercially as Roundup, has long been a target of the MAHA movement. Produced by Bayer, which acquired the original manufacturer, Monsanto, in 2018, the herbicide has been the subject of tens of thousands of lawsuits, many from users who claim to have developed non-Hodgkins lymphoma as a result of exposure.

Antiplastic advocates applauded Thursday’s announcement.

“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has taken an important first step to regulate microplastics in drinking water,” said Judith Enck, a former regional director of the agency and the founder of Beyond Plastics, an antiplastic waste environmental group based in Bennington, Vt. She urged the regulators to “move rapidly,” not only to regulate the plastic in drinking water, but also prevent it from getting into drinking water.

So, too, did Kimberly Wise White, vice president of regulatory and scientific affairs at the American Chemistry Council, the trade group for the chemical industry.

“We support science-driven monitoring of microplastics in drinking water and research to better understand potential impacts,” White said in a statement.

Others, however, seemed dubious.

There is reason to be concerned about microplastics in drinking water, said Erik Olson, strategic director of health for the Natural Resources Defense Council, “but the EPA’s actions speak louder than its words. The Trump EPA is trying to scrap key PFAS standards and just two weeks ago said it wouldn’t issue any new protections for toxins in drinking water. So, which is it?”

In 2022, California became the first government in the world to require microplastics testing for drinking water. The state has not yet begun reporting its results.

Blair Robertson, a spokesman for the State Water Resources Control Board, said regulators are “working on it and being very deliberate as they proceed and try to quantify how microplastics are impacting drinking water.”

A report was expected in 2025, but has not yet been issued.

Micro- and nanoplastics have been found everywhere scientists have looked. They’ve been found in human organs and tissue, such as brains, livers, placentas and testicles. They’ve also been detected in blood, breast milk and even meconium — an infant’s first stool. In addition, they are prevalent throughout the environment — in alpine snow, deep sea sediment and drinking water.

On March 31, a coalition of MAHA groups associated with Kennedy sent a letter to Zeldin requesting the Trump administration halt permitting for new plastics manufacturing plants and step up monitoring of microplastics in drinking water.

In December, Zeldin told MAHA groups he would include measures on plastics as part of the agency’s agenda, after several prominent MAHA groups called for him to be fired. They said he was too close to chemical companies.

For the first time in more than 50 years, astronauts are on their way to the moon.

NASA’s colossal Space Launch System rocket lifted off at 3:35 p.m. Pacific time from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, marking the start of the 10-day Artemis II mission.

In the hours and minutes leading up to launch, as the astronauts waited aboard, NASA engineers troubleshooted minor issues with the 30-story-tall rocket. First, the teams identified an issue with the hardware that communicates with a system designed to detonate the rocket to protect public safety if the rocket veers off course. Next, there was a fluke temperature reading on the Launch Abort System, designed to pull the crew to safety during such an event. Finally, they managed a brief telemetry issue with the capsule.

All were ultimately resolved, and the agency proceeded.

“On this historic mission, you take with you the heart of this Artemis team, the daring spirit of the American people and our partners across the globe, and the hopes and dreams of a new generation,” Artemis II launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson said to the crew minutes before launch. “Good luck. Godspeed, Artemis II. Let’s go.”

In a few days’ time, the four astronauts aboard will perform a flyby of the moon — they will not land on the surface nor will they enter the moon’s orbit. Instead, the flyby is designed as an essential stepping-stone mission to test the rocket, human life support systems and flight procedures ahead of a lunar landing, which NASA hopes to pull off in 2028.

This includes studies on the astronauts’ sleep and mental health, as well as how deep-space radiation and microgravity affect organs and immune system. The crew will also practice manually piloting the spacecraft while still close to Earth.

NASA expects the crew to reach the moon Monday morning, around 10 a.m. Pacific time. As the astronauts pass the far side of the moon, NASA expects to temporarily lose communication with the crew, who will focus on documenting and analyzing the rugged lunar surface. Around this point, NASA anticipates the crew will break the Apollo 13 crew’s record for the farthest distance any human has traveled from Earth.

The crew will then begin their four-day return. The crew capsule is set to slam into the Earth’s atmosphere at roughly 30 times the speed of sound — potentially making it the fastest reentry of a crewed capsule in history — on April 10. NASA anticipates the crew will splash down off the coast of San Diego around 5 p.m. Pacific time.

The mission, made possible by scientists, engineers and support crews across the country and world, has a touch of Southern California, too.

Victor Glover, the astronaut piloting the mission, was once a kid in the Pomona Valley, watching the space shuttle launch on TV and dreaming of driving the thing. He cut his teeth as a test pilot out in the Mojave, attending test pilot school at Edwards Air Force Base and serving on a Navy test pilot squadron in China Lake, Calif.

If the mission is successful, Glover will become the first Black person to travel to the moon. With him will be the first woman to do so, NASA astronaut Christina Koch, and the first non-American to do so, Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency. Not to be outdone by his crewmates, mission commander Reid Wiseman, at 50, will be the oldest to do so.

NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center inside Edwards Air Force Base is also conducting critical research and testing for the mission. They supported two tests of the rocket’s Launch Abort System — designed to accelerate from 0 to 500 mph in just two seconds to literally outrun the debris of an exploding rocket — in the 2010s. (The rocket discarded the abort system after the crew safely escaped the majority of Earth’s atmosphere.)

During reentry, the center will participate in a high-speed relay of military and civilian planes to chase the capsule and measure how the heat shield performs with high-tech telescopes and sensors. Artemis II is testing out a new reentry trajectory after an uncrewed test mission in 2022 resulted in unexpected damage to the heat shield.

Finally, once the capsule safely splashes down off San Diego, NASA and U.S. Navy divers will secure the capsule, with medical staff from both on standby. A Navy ship will then bring the capsule back to Naval Base San Diego, right next to the city’s downtown.

The Artemis program ultimately aims to land humans back on the moon, help the space agency establish a lunar base and serve as the testing grounds for future missions to Mars.

NASA plans to launch Artemis III, a mission in Earth’s orbit to test docking the NASA spacecraft with SpaceX’s and Blue Origin’s lunar landers, in 2027. It aspires to launch Artemis IV, which would put humans on the surface of the moon, in 2028.

“Artemis II is the opening act,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman shortly before launch. “We’re going into the golden age of science and discovery right now.”