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President Donald Trump speaks at a press conference with British Prime Minister Theresa May at the Foreign Office on Tuesday, June 4, 2019, in central London. (AP Photo / Alex Brandon)
In a surprising tweet, President Trump said that NASA "should [not] talk about going on the moon "but should focus on" much bigger things. "
"Despite all the money we spend, NASA should NOT talk about going to the moon, we did it 50 years ago," Trump wrote in a tweet aboard Air Force One. "They should focus on the much bigger things we do, including Mars (which the Moon is part of), Defense and Science!"
It's unclear what motivated Trump's tweet and exactly what he meant when he said the Moon was part of Mars. In May, Trump tweeted that, under his administration, NASA would return to the Moon and finally to Mars, in order to "return to space dramatically!"
CURIOSITY ROVER SPOTS & OBJECT & # 39; SHINY 'ON MARCH AND NASA IS NOT SAFE FROM WHAT IT IS
The White House and NASA have not yet responded to requests for comments for this story.
NASA, for its part, has made several discoveries since its Curiosity rover landed on Mars in August 2012, including, more recently, evidence of an ancient lake. In November, Curiosity was joined on the Red Planet by Insight Mars Lander of NASA.
In November 2018, NASA announced that it had chosen the place where its March 2020 rover would land on the red planet. The rover is expected to land on Mars on February 18, 2021.
Back to the moon
In April, Vice President Pence said that the United States would be back on the moon by 2024, with or without NASA's help, under the Trump administration's directive to focus on the exploration and defense of space.
"It is time to redouble efforts," said Pence at a meeting of the National Space Council in Huntsville, Alabama. "It can happen, but it will not happen if we do not increase the pace."
Pence warned that if NASA can not send astronauts to the Moon by 2024, "we must change the organization, not the mission". He warned that the space agency should be transformed into a more efficient organization, otherwise it would be replaced by the private sector.
"We are not committed to a single contractor. If our current entrepreneurs can not achieve this goal, we will find one who will. If the US industry can provide essential business services without government development, we will buy them. And if commercial rockets are the only way to attract American astronauts to the moon in the next five years, they will be, Pence said.
NASA's director Jim Bridenstine assured Pence that NASA would work hard to meet the deadline, confident that the SLS, or Space Launch System, would be ready for use.
The government space agency, which has announced its intention to market the International Space Station Friday to focus its efforts and resources on space exploration, including the Moon and Mars, has been urged to return to the Moon .
Over the last few months, Congress has been interviewing Bridenstine and NASA to find out why their plan to return to the Moon by 2024 was not ready yet. The space agency said it was continuing to work with the Trump administration on a budget request that would achieve this goal, even though no official figure has been publicly discussed.
Last month, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that NASA's major projects were 27 percent above base and the average launch time was 13 months. This is the most important delay since GAO began evaluating major NASA projects 10 years ago.
The James Webb Space Telescope, still in development, is the main offender. The planned launch date for this Hubble Space Telescope's advanced successor is now 2021, with an estimated price of $ 9.6 billion, the GAO said. The initial launch date was 2007, with initial cost estimates as low as $ 1 billion.
The space launch system, NASA's mega rocket, the Space Launch System, also faces huge cost overruns due to production issues and, possibly, even longer launch times.
On the plus side, the Parker solar sensor, which is still running closer to the sun, was launched last summer and has exceeded the multi-million dollar budget.
Bradford Betz of Fox News and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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