WASHINGTON, 16 January 2004 — President Bush said yesterday he wants NASA to return to the moon by no later than 2020 and establish an “extended human presence” on the lunar surface that would serve as a steppingstone to space exploration of Mars and beyond.
Bush’s plan, outlined in an election-year speech at National Aeronautics and Space Administration headquarters in Washington, envisions Americans living and working on the moon for extended periods.
The president’s space plans call on the United States to complete its work on the International Space Station and retire the space shuttle fleet by 2010. This will be replaced with a new manned “crew exploration vehicle” designed and tested by 2008 and used for the first time by 2014.
Bush’s call for stepped-up space exploration offers a lifeline to NASA, which has been struggling to redefine its mission and justify its $15 billion annual budget in the face of shuttle disasters and criticism that the agency has not accomplished much since the first astronaut landed on the moon in 1969. NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe told reporters the agency would immediately reorganize to execute the president’s plans, and start the groundwork for new space vehicles and new propulsion systems needed to power them.
NASA also will place a “singular focus” on conducting research on how humans can live in space for long duration, O’Keefe said.
It will also invite international partners to participate.
The White House now must persuade a skeptical Congress to sign onto the visionary program at a time the nation faces a projected $500 billion budget deficit and growing expenditures for the war in Iraq.
Many of the president’s critics have voiced concerns whether the new expense is a wise decision. Sen. John F. Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat running for president, said: “George Bush’s space program is boldly going where we went 30 years ago at 20 times the cost. We’ve got 42 million Americans without health insurance, 12 million children in poverty, and have lost 3 million American jobs, and now this president has the nerve to ask the American people for $1 billion to send people to the moon?”
