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Late last week, NASA announced that senior officials of the manned space mission portfolio had been reorganized in the face of President Donald Trump's growing impatience to hasten the return of human beings to the lunar surface.
NASA's director Jim Bridenstine explained why the United States had suspended its manned lunar program more than 40 years ago and what it would take for their manned space program to progress.
"There is a technical risk and then a political risk, we would be on the moon at the moment without any political risk, we would be on Mars, very frankly, now, without the political risk," Bridenstine said. Addressing CBS News.
"I'm talking about funding," said the administrator, saying that the Moon programs of the last decades were made unrealizable by their duration and cost. "In the past, in the 1990s and early 2000s, we made efforts to return to the Moon and Mars, but in each case the program was too long and too expensive," he said. he declares.
Now, he noted, President Trump has sought to accelerate the program "to reduce political risk".
Asked to comment on NASA's Artemis program, which aims to create a new heavy rocket, a space capsule and a lunar lander for a new mission on the moon in just five years, Bridenstine said the goal President Trump's was broader.
"So we want to stay on the Moon in a sustainable way, that is to say, stay in. But we also want to stay focused on the goal of President Trump." What is his vision? He wants to place a flag American on Mars "says Bridenstine.
"So we are going to the moon to learn to live and work on another world and, ultimately, have more access to the solar system than ever before, so that we can access Mars, no kidding," he said. said the administrator added.
In March, Vice President Mike Pence called on NASA to accelerate its efforts to prepare the components needed to relocate people on the lunar surface, and suggested that the agency should be reorganized if it could not manage the "American landing" task. astronauts on the moon in five years ".
At the end of last week, NASA announced a reshuffling of its leadership, naming former astronaut Kenneth Bowersox as the new acting deputy administrator of the human exploration program, in a climate of apparent discontent. as to the pace of progress.
Earlier this year, Bridenstine warned that Boeing's new $ 12-billion Space Launch System (SLS) space rocket launcher program, which has been in operation since 2011, continues to grow. delay due to significant cost overruns. The Orion Crew Vehicle, an American-European spacecraft designed to carry up to four astronauts in space, has experienced similar problems. The Government Accountability Office recently complained of persistent delays and costs associated with the program, tested since 2014. The new moon landing gear for Moon Shot 2.0 has not yet been designed, according to CBS.
In December 1972, astronauts from NASA's Apollo 17 mission took off from the moon and returned to Earth. This mission is the last time humans go beyond low Earth orbit to another astronomical body in our solar system.
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