US to return astronauts to the Moon by 2024, VP Pence says
The United States plans to land astronauts on the moon within the next five years, Vice President Mike Pence announced today (March 26).
The nation had been shooting for a 2028 lunar touchdown, but "that's just not good enough," Pence said during the fifth meeting of the National Space Council (NSC), which he chairs. "We're better than that."
So, it is now the official policy of the United States to return astronauts to the surface of the moon by 2024, the vice president stressed, invoking a 21st-century space race with China and Russia.
Vice President Mike Pence speaking at Tuesday's National Space Council meeting. (Image/NASA)
"Urgency must be our watchword," Pence said at the NSC meeting, which was held at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. "The United States must remain first in space in this century as in the last, not just to propel our economy and secure our nation but, above all, because the rules and values of space, like every great frontier, will be written by those who have the courage to get there first and the commitment to stay."
An astronaut standing on the surface of the Moon. (Photo/NASA)
And the United States is indeed committed to stay, Pence added. The nation's next giant leap in space, he said, involves establishing a permanent base on the lunar surface"and developing the technologies to take American astronauts to Mars and beyond."
That base will likely be built near the moon's south pole, which harbors abundant water ice on the floors of permanently shadowed craters. The NSC, which helps steer and streamline the nation's space policy, will recommend today that NASA's next crewed surface mission target that region, Pence said.
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