Trump: First I’ll put a man on the Moon again, then it’s on to Mars
DONALD TRUMP formally announced last night that he is sending Americans back to the Moon.
Nearly half a century after the last human being set foot on the lunar surface in 1972, Mr Trump said the Moon would be used as a stepping stone to a Mars landing.
He signed Space Policy Directive 1, which ordered Nasa to “lead an innovative space exploration programme to send American astronauts back to the Moon, and eventually Mars”.
The Daily Telegraph revealed last year that Mr Trump was likely to reverse the course of Barack Obama, who abandoned the idea of a lunar mission.
A White House spokesman said last night: “He [Mr Trump] will change our nation’s human spaceflight policy to help America become the driving force for the space industry, gain new knowledge from the cosmos, and spur incredible technology.”
The move was based on recommendations from the National Space Council, chaired by Mike Pence, the vice president. The council had been disbanded in 1992 and was restarted by Mr Trump, meeting for the first time in October. The announcement came on the 45th anniversary of Apollo 17 landing, the last manned mission.
Gene Cernan, its commander, was the last human to leave footprints on the Moon when he departed back to Earth on Dec 14 1972.
Mr Cernan, who died in January this year aged 82, had predicted that mankind would reach Mars by the end of the 20th century.
Under George W Bush’s Constellation programme a trip back to the Moon was planned for the 2020s, but Barack Obama, his successor, cancelled it favouring a mission to get men to a near-earth asteroid by 2025, and then close to Mars by the mid-2030s. Among those advising Mr Trump who urged going back to the Moon were Newt Gingrich, who once advocated putting a colony there, and Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the Moon.
Mr Trump has long been critical of Nasa becoming what he called “primarily a logistical agency for low Earth-orbit activities, instead of space exploration” and he has promised that the US will “lead the way to the stars”.
However, climate scientists have been critical of him over slashing funding for Nasa’s Earth science programme in favour of paying for exploration.
♦ A US judge denied a request from the Trump administration to delay allowing transgender recruits to join the military, clearing the way for them to enlist from Jan 1. The ruling was a setback for Mr Trump who in July sent out three tweets saying that transgender troops could not serve “in any capacity” in the military.