Donald Trump announced the possibility of sending American astronauts to the moon and other "distant worlds" for the 250th anniversary of the existence of the United States, which will take place in 2026, according to online edition Space.com
"American footprints on the surface of distant worlds is not as distant a dream as one might think," Donald Trump said in his speech to the US Congress yesterday, describing possible prospects for what America could achieve by its 250th anniversary.
Trump did not specify which celestial body the astronauts should go to, but NASA has long had plans to return to the moon in 2020 in preparation for a flight and landing on Mars in mid-2030. NASA is currently developing the Orion spacecraft for its first flyby of the moon before the end of this decade, and the astronauts landing on the moon in early 2020.
In addition to NASA, a similar task set by the President of the United States can be realized by private companies, whose role in space exploration and exploration, in accordance with the wishes of the Trump administration, could significantly grow in the coming years. Yesterday Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, announced the first private flight of two anonymous "space tourists" to the moon, which will take place in late 2018 aboard the Dragon-2 spacecraft.
NASA officials officially endorsed Musk and SpaceX, noting that the space agency "will continue to work closely with SpaceX" and will assist private companies in such a task, despite the fact that a private startup risks outstripping NASA's own plans to return to the moon.
There is still a lot of work to be done by both NASA and SpaceX to implement all of these plans. NASA last put astronauts into space on its own in July 2011 during the last shuttle launch, and Dragon-2 has not yet passed all life support tests in order to send it into space with a crew on board.
Moreover, neither the private nor the state US space industry has yet completed the development of the Orion and Dragon-2 delivery vehicles - the "state" heavy SLS launch vehicle will first be sent into space at the end of 2018, and the "private" Falcon Heavy rocket will be tested by SpaceX only this year, and Musk has no plans to send any payloads into space yet.