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OAN Press Room
UPDATED 10:22 AM – Friday, August 16, 2019
GOP lawmakers in Texas are trying to convince NASA's Jim Bridenstine to reconsider the location of his New Moon program. NASA plans to transfer part of the program development from the Johnson Space Center in Houston to the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
The Marshall Space Flight Center will oversee two of the three elements required for this program: the transfer element and the descent element. This move comes as President Trump is eager to make another artificial flight to The Moon by 2024.
"We will go to the moon. We will go to Mars very soon. It's very exciting and from a military point of view, there is nothing more important for the moment than space. – President Trump
Senator Ted Cruz and Senator John Cornyn, as well as Representative Brian Babin, expressed their concerns in a letter. According to them, this decision discredits the history of the Johnson Space Center and considers that dividing production into two centers is counterproductive. They believe that Houston should be the place where the next landing on the moon will be developed and launched, knowing that "Houston was one of the first words spoken on The Moon" and that the Johnson Space Center has come up with the last rocket landing on the moon.
NASA's director, Jim Bridenstine, talks with reporters in front of the central scene of the space launch system, which will fuel the lunar Artemis 1 mission, while he goes to the site. The NASA Michaud Assembly in New Orleans on Thursday, August 15, 2019. (AP Photo / Gerald Herbert)
In May, NASA officials asked Congress to increase its budget for 2020 by $ 1.6 billion, most of which would go to the development of this lunar human landing system.
"And when we do what we call Artemis 2, we're actually going to ask American astronauts to launch American rockets around the moon. Artemis 3 will then be the mission in 2024 that will land our humans for the first time on the surface of the Earth. moon, explained Bridenstine.
The NASA administrator is expected to announce his new location Friday, but lawmakers have asked NASA to suspend any official announcement until they have been fully informed of the subject and timeline.
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