While Elon Musk threatens to transport humanity to Mars, and Russia is worried about alien resources, 45th US President Donald Trump signed a new directive approving the space program to send American astronauts to the moon. Let us remind you that the last of the six landings on the lunar surface took place back in 1972. Since then, no man has set foot on the moon. This is what Donald Trump wants to fix, which he openly stated during his speech to the press.
The signing of the Directive on space policy number 1 took place at the White House on Monday, December 11. The document authorizes the American space agency NASA to focus all its efforts on carrying out the next delivery of astronauts to the moon. Back in October, the directive was formed by members of the National Space Council, headed by Vice President Mike Pence, and submitted for signing to the US President.
“The directive that I am signing today will reorient the US space program towards further human exploration of the Earth's natural satellite. This is the first step since 1972 to bring American astronauts back to the moon. And this time the project is aimed at long-term research. We won't just stick our flag in the moon and leave our footprints there. We will create an important groundwork there for future Martian missions and possibly even missions to explore worlds far beyond Mars,”said Donald Trump.
Vice President Mike Pence added that America will soon again lead the space race on all fronts. According to him, space is the next most important goal for the United States, and huge experience in this field, scientific achievements and the endless courage of the American people will help to achieve it. Despite loud pretentious statements, experts still do not quite understand how NASA will implement this large-scale project.
Funding for the space agency has been cut several times in recent years, and where to get the huge money to implement plans to send a man to the moon is not entirely clear. Perhaps, in this NASA will help Elon Musk with his rockets and spaceships. The signed document does not even contain approximate information on the timing of the project, which makes it even more vague and vague. Let us remind you that China and Japan also announced their plans to send a man to the moon not so long ago.
Sergey Gray