Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday that the Trump administration had plans to see Americans back to the moon in the next 5 years, just as the 50th anniversary of the first manned mission to the moon is getting closer.
Pence, who made the announcement at the United States Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, said that the previously estimated year of 2028 for the next moon landing was “just not good enough.”
“It is the stated policy of this administration and the United States of America to return American astronauts to the moon within the next five years,” he noted. “Some will say it’s too hard, it’s too risky, it’s too expensive. But the same was said back in 1962.”
The vice president further pointed out that the delay in progress getting Americans to the moon was a result of “bureaucratic inertia” plaguing the space launch system. In the administration’s latest budget proposal, funding for SLS would be cut by 15 percent.
Pence also said that establishing the U.S. Space Command was one of the Trump administration’s priorities so as to “meet the growing security threats in the war fighting domain of space.” He singled out Russia and China’s advancements in the space realm as evidence of his claim.
“It’s not just competition against our adversaries. We’re also racing against our worst enemy – complacency,” Pence added.
The vice president then confirmed President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the recently created U.S. Space Command, Air Force General John Raymond.
Trump directed the establishment of Space Command in December. It will fall under the Air Force and have a relationship akin to the U.S. Marine Corps’ relationship to the Department of the Navy.
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