HUNTSVILLE-On Tuesday, March 26 the fifth meeting of the National Space Council was held at U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Vice President Mike Pence announced that the Trump administration is committed to sending humans back to the Moon by 2024, four years earlier than NASA’s previous target of 2028.
During Pence’s speech he declared the administration will meet this goal “by
PHOTO: NASA
any means necessary.” He called on NASA to adopt new policies and argued that the space agency would need to embrace “a new mindset that begins with setting bold goals and staying on schedule.” To do that, he said the administration may consider ditching some of NASA’s current contractors — which are currently developing new vehicles to take humans into deep space — and using commercially developed rockets instead. “If commercial rockets are the only way to get American astronauts to the Moon in the next five years, then commercial rockets it will be,” said Pence. “Urgency must be our watch word.”
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine
The following is a statement from NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine on Tuesday’s announcement by Vice President Mike Pence, at the fifth meeting of the National Space Council, about putting American astronauts back on the Moon in the next five years:
“Today, I joined leaders from across the country as Vice President Mike Pence chaired the fifth meeting of the National Space Council. Vice President Pence lauded President Donald J. Trump’s bold vision for space exploration and spoke to NASA’s progress on key elements to accomplish the President’s Space Policy Directives.
“Among the many topics discussed during our meeting at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, was to accelerate our return to the Moon:
- NASA is charged to get American astronauts to the Moon in the next five years.
- We are tasked with landing on the Moon’s South Pole by 2024.
- Stay on schedule for flying Exploration Mission-1 with Orion on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket next year, and for sending the first crewed mission to the lunar vicinity by 2022.
- NASA will continue to ‘use all means necessary’ to ensure mission success in moving us forward to the Moon.
“It is the right time for this challenge, and I assured the Vice President that we, the people of NASA, are up to the challenge.
“We will take action in the days and weeks ahead to accomplish these goals. We have laid out a clear plan for NASA’s exploration campaign that cuts across three strategic areas: low-Earth orbit, the Moon, and Mars and deeper into space.
“I have already directed a new alignment within NASA to ensure we effectively support this effort, which includes establishing a new mission directorate to focus on the formulation and execution of exploration development activities. We are calling it the Moon to Mars Mission Directorate.
“Earlier today I was also at Marshall Space Flight Center for an all-hands to reinforce our commitment to SLS with the workforce. We discussed my recent announcement that NASA would consider all options to fly Orion around the Moon on schedule. I shared the analysis we conducted to assess flying the Orion on different commercial options. While some of these alternative vehicles could work, none was capable of achieving our goals to orbit around the Moon for Exploration Mission-1 within our timeline and on budget. The results of this two-week study reaffirmed our commitment to the SLS. More details will be released in the future.
“There’s a lot of excitement about our plans and also a lot of hard work and challenges ahead, but I know the NASA workforce and our partners are up to it. We are now looking at creative approaches to advance SLS manufacturing and testing to ensure Exploration Mission-1 launches in 2020. We will work to ensure we have a safe and reliable launch system that keeps its promise to the American people.
“I know NASA is ready for the challenge of moving forward to the Moon, this time to stay.”
NASA has private companies from all over America partnering with the
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massive government agency in materials supplies, equipment components, and logistics which support our Nation’s space program.
