Trump looks back on his space goals: "NASA should NOT talk about going to the moon" and focus on Mars



[ad_1]

"Despite all the money we spend, NASA should NOT talk about going to the moon.We did it 50 years ago," he wrote on Twitter then that he was returning from Ireland to Washington.

"They should focus on the much bigger things we do, including Mars (which the Moon is part of), Defense and Science!" Trump wrote.

The message contained several unclear aspects, including Mars' description of Trump "of which the Moon is a part".

Bridenstine promised that the next trip to the koon would be "different from what we had done before" because "we are going to stay".

At the end of last month, Trump announced that it would add $ 1.6 billion to NASA's budget "so we can go back to space in a GREAT WAY!"

"Under my administration, we give @NASA its splendor and we return to the Moon, then Mars," he tweeted.

As part of the budget increase, the administration announced that it would begin sending the first woman to the moon, nearly five decades after the last US landing. Only 12 humans, all men, have already walked on the moon and they were all Americans.

The budget increase added to NASA's initial $ 21 billion request to accelerate the return to the lunar surface.

Trump's comments coincided on Friday with Vice President Mike Pence's birthday. In March, the government announced its intention to send the Americans back to the moon in the next five years, as the 50th anniversary of the first human mission to the moon approaches.

Speaking at the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala., Pence said the estimated year of 2028 for the next American on the Moon was "simply inadequate".

"It's the declared policy of this administration and the United States of America to send American astronauts back to the moon in the next five years," said Mr. Pence.

The renewed moonshot has not been universally popular. Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins told CNN this week that NASA should give priority to a landing on Mars. He also has doubts about Trump's leadership on this issue.

"I do not think he's too much aware of Mars, maybe he does not understand that there is a Mars planet," Collins said in an interview for the new podcast of CNN "Apollo 11: Beyond the Moon".

[ad_2]

Source link