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Pence agreed that the schedule was short but maintained that it was possible, indicating the Apollo 11 landing as an example of how quickly the United States can move when they are motivated. He suggested that this might require the use of private rockets if the space launch system was not ready in time.
There is a main problem with the plans: it is not clear that the money is there to make it happen. Although the proposed budget for fiscal year 2020 actually slightly increases NASA's funding to $ 21 billion, astrophysicist Katie Mack it is noted that it would represent a much smaller fraction of the federal budget than the 1960s Apollo program. Although the federal budget has clearly increased over the decades, the cost of traveling in space has also increased – the government will have to maybe spend a lot more to reach his goal.
In a speech, Mike Pence proposed sending astronauts back to the moon five years ago.
As a reminder, here is NASA's budget over time. The current projections for 2018/2019/2020 are small fluctuations from the 2017 point. See if you can spot the Apollo years. pic.twitter.com/sLwdEjhdJg
– Katie Mack (@AstroKatie) March 26, 2019
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