WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Thursday (Dec 18) confirmed that he wants to send astronauts back to the Moon as soon as possible, putting eventual Mars missions on the back burner.
In an executive order on his space policy, Trump said he wanted to get Americans to the Moon by 2028, under NASA’s Artemis programme launched during his first White House term.
Such a lunar landing would “assert American leadership in space, lay the foundations for lunar economic development, prepare for the journey to Mars, and inspire the next generation of American explorers”, the order says.
It also says the US space agency NASA hopes to set up “initial elements of a permanent lunar outpost by 2030” and confirms plans to deploy nuclear reactors “on the Moon and in orbit”.
Americans are currently scheduled to return to the Moon’s surface in mid-2027 on the Artemis 3 mission, but the timeline has been repeatedly pushed back.
And industry experts say it likely will be delayed again because the lunar lander in development at Elon Musk’s SpaceX is not yet ready.
Trump’s executive order puts increased pressure on both NASA and the private space sector to reach the administration’s objectives.
The United States is keen to bypass China, which also intends to send a crew to the Moon by 2030 and set up a base there.
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