![]() SpaceX and Boeing are hard at work on space capsules that will start sending people to low-Earth orbit as early as 2018. Since then, Americans have been forced to hitch rides aboard Russia's Soyuz spacecraft, at a cost of more than $80 million per seat. The United States lost the ability to send astronauts to the International Space Station when the shuttle program was retired in 2011. NASA earlier this year announced it is exploring a project called the Deep Space Gateway, which could send astronauts into the vicinity of the Moon using a massive new rocket, known as the Space Launch System, or SLS, being developed by NASA.Īnd propelling people to Mars by the 2030s was a key feature of US space policy under the previous administrations of Barack Obama and George W. "We did win the race to the Moon," he added, recalling the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s which sent men-one of whom, Buzz Aldrin, sat in the audience-to the surface of the Moon. "Our nation will return to the Moon, and we will put American boots on the face of Mars," Pence told the cheering crowd of about 800 NASA employees, space experts and private contractors, but gave no specifics. He also toured NASA's Kennedy Space Center to see progress in constructing a NASA spaceship destined for deep space and privately built capsules designed to send astronauts to low-Earth orbit in the coming years. There’s one problem with that theory though: Six months into the Trump presidency, NASA still doesn’t have an administrator.Pence, who was recently named to head a government advisory body called the National Space Council, said the group would hold its first meeting "before the summer is out." He also did little to reconcile the apparent importance of NASA with proposed budget cuts.īut maybe Pence was just trying to give a rousing speech heavy on symbolism, leaving the policy to the NASA administrator. Despite the grandiose language - America will take “our rightful place as the vanguard of humanity’s historic rendezvous with the future,” Pence said - the particulars of the Trump administration’s space plan remain murky. will achieve those goals or provide any timetables. Pence didn’t go into detail about how the U.S. “Today, I come to assure you, the men and women of NASA, and all those at this gateway to the stars, where the aspirations of the American people have taken flight, that under President Donald Trump, America will lead in space once again,” he said. by strengthening the economy, unlocking new technology, inspiring children to love science, and helping keep America safe. space policy, and Pence laid out ambitious goals for NASA in a speech at the Kennedy Space Center, which he called “the heart and soul of our space program, where science fiction has become science fact for generations.”Īmerica will “get back to winning” in space, Pence said, and “usher in a new era of space leadership.” He said space exploration will help the U.S. ![]() Last seated in 1993, the council is charged with guiding U.S. His remarks came days after President Trump appointed him the head of the revived National Space Council. to return to the moon and put “American boots on the face of Mars.” Vice-President Mike Pence announced Thursday plans for the U.S.
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