Instead he focused on the goal of sending humans to orbit Mars by the 2030s. President Barack Obama eliminated the goal of returning humans to the lunar surface in part because of the high cost of building landers to take astronauts from orbit to the surface and back. Bush in 2004 personally asserted that American astronauts would return to the surface of the Moon and someday go to Mars, but neither followed through with the requisite funding. The bold words were not accompanied by timetables or funding projections, however. Later he added: “Like the pioneers that came before us, we will settle that frontier with American leadership, American courage and American ingenuity.” We will maintain a constant presence in low-Earth orbit, and we will develop polices that will carry human space exploration across our solar system and ultimately into the vast expanse of space.” We will go to Mars, and will go still further to places that our children’s children can only imagine. Pence said the Trump Administration will “reorient America’s space program toward human space exploration and discovery.” The speech was long on generalities about restoring American leadership in space, but contained only a few kernels that may indicate what this Administration is planning. A SpaceX Dragon capsule, the Lockheed Martin Orion EFT-1 module, and a Boeing CST-100 Starliner training module are in the background. All three NASA officials and Pence spoke on stage with three space capsules as the backdrop: the first SpaceX Dragon to take cargo to the ISS, NASA’s Orion Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) capsule that was launched on a test flight in 2014, and a Boeing CST-100 Starliner training module.Īcting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot at Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building, July 6, 2017, introducing Vice President Mike Pence. Pence and Rubio were met by Acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot, KSC Director Bob Cabana, and KSC Deputy Director Janet Petro. Vice President Mike Pence speaks at Kennedy Space Center, July 6, 2017. Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin also was there. Also present in the VAB were Florida Reps. Rubio flew to KSC with the Vice President on Air Force Two, which landed at the Shuttle Landing Facility at KSC. Senators: Bill Nelson (D) and Marco Rubio (R). Pence spoke in the iconic Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) to a crowd of NASA and contractor employees along with members of Congress and other state and local politicians. He said that he plans to hold the first meeting of the Council by the end of the summer. This was Pence’s first space policy address in that capacity. As Vice President, Pence is its chairman. President Trump reestablished the Space Council by Executive Order on Friday. No announcement was made about who will be nominated to be NASA Administrator or who will serve as Executive Director of the White House National Space Council. The FY2018 Trump budget request for NASA does not include funding even for the modest lunar-orbiting Deep Space Gateway. space program towards human exploration, starting with a return to the Moon and “boots on the face of Mars,” but provided no specifics on when or how that will happen or the source of the money to accomplish it. Vice President Mike Pence promised today to “reorient” the U.S.
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