Since President George H.W. Bush called for a return to the moon in 1989 to mark the 20th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing, several presidents have called for NASA to send astronauts to the moon or Mars with soaring rhetoric that’s never been matched by the resources or political resolve to make such promises come true. Now, on the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, it is the Trump administration’s turn.
Vice President Pence at the signing ceremony for Space Policy Directive 4, which established the Space Force. By Christian Davenport Christian Davenport Reporter covering the defense and space industries Email Bio Follow April 5 at 12:24 PM On the 20th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, President George H.W. Bush called for a return to the lunar surface, affirming in 1989 that “it is humanity’s destiny to strive, to seek, to find.
NASA officials also face a major test of their agency’s effectiveness: Is this another empty promise by an administration nostalgic for the triumph of Apollo and looking to make a splash while in office, or can NASA somehow pull off what would be an audacious step just in time for the presidential election?At a hearing Tuesday, Rep.
The White House had made clear to NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine within the last few weeks that it wanted NASA to move faster and tasked him with making it happen by 2024. He told administration officials he could do it. “They’ve been consistent in their desire to accelerate,” he said in a brief interview after he testified before the congressional hearing Tuesday.
Major technical challenges also lie ahead. The rocket NASA plans to use to launch astronauts to the moon is so far behind, and so far over budget, that last month Bridenstine threatened to sideline it in its first mission in favor of commercial rockets instead. The problem for NASA is that none of this architecture has been built or is even under contract. And without a budget or assurances from Congress that the program would be funded, many fear that the White House is setting the agency up for yet another letdown.
There is deep skepticism within NASA, as well. To assuage concerns, Bridenstine held a town hall Monday and took questions from employees. One referenced how different presidents keep pointing NASA to different missions — the moon, then Mars, then back to the moon — while none gets achieved. In his March 26 speech, Pence cast the mission as part of a new space race against superpowers such as China and Russia, vying for the water at the moon’s south pole, which could be used not just to sustain human life but also as rocket fuel to push farther into the solar system. Water, as many have said, is the oil of the solar system.
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