Americans will walk on Mars, return to moon, VP promises
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday declared “a new era of American leadership in space” and vowed that astronauts launched from Florida’s Space Coast will someday walk on Mars.
“Here, from this bridge to space, our nation will return to the moon, and we will put American boots on the face of Mars,” Pence said.
Pence addressed several hundred NASA employees, guests and dignitaries during a tour of Kennedy Space Center, days after President Donald Trump named him to lead the relaunched National Space Council.
“Today, I come to assure you, the men and women of NASA, and all those at this gateway to the stars, where the aspirations of the American people have taken flight, that under President Donald Trump, America will lead in space once again,” he said.
Speaking inside its massive Vehicle Assembly Building, Pence called Kennedy Space Center “the heart and soul of our space program, where science fiction has become science fact for generations.”
Trump last week signed an executive order reviving the National Space Council and naming Pence to lead it. Trump said his administration is ready to “lead
again like we never led before,” while calling space the “next great American frontier.”
Pence on Thursday said the council will meld NASA and government officials with leaders in the private sector and academic experts in order to bring “the best of America together once again to lead, with Americans in space.”
“It will ensure that America once again takes our rightful place as the vanguard of humanity’s historic rendezvous with the future and the outer limits of space,” he said.
Pence said he expects the council to meet “before the summer is out.” However, Trump has yet to name a NASA administrator or a director for the Office of Science and Technology Policy. Both posts are expected to serve on the council.
Pence’s speech, which stressed manned expeditions into space as a priority, comes amid uncertainty about NASA’s next manned mission and its priorities for space exploration under Trump.
Trump’s budget proposal released in March called for scrapping a mission to send astronauts to an asteroid, though it preserved funding to develop the agency’s Space Launch System and Orion capsule, intended to carry astronauts into space and potentially to Mars.
Pence gave no time frame for a Mars mission.
U.S. Rep. Bill Posey, a Republican whose district includes Kennedy Space Center, said he was excited by the vice president’s speech. He called Mars the space program’s next frontier for exploration.
“We’ve asked NASA for a map, a guide … of where we are today and when we get to Mars, and that we stick to that and keep it a priority,” Posey told reporters. “Returning to the moon is part of the steppingstone of going to Mars.”
The National Space Council, entering its third iteration under Trump, dates back to Dwight Eisenhower’s administration. It played a key role in setting the nation’s sights on manned moon missions during John F. Kennedy’s presidency but was last disbanded in 1993.
Pence’s speech was attended by former astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon; Florida Sens. Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio; state Attorney General Pam Bondi; and Adam Putnam, the agriculture commissioner and 2018 candidate for governor.
In his remarks, Pence hailed the public-private partnerships in place at Kennedy Space Center, speaking the day after SpaceX successfully launched a satellite aboard its Falcon 9 rocket from the facility.
“Kennedy Space Center is proof that the public and private sectors can achieve more by working together than they could ever achieve apart,” he said. “This center is today the world’s premiere multi-use spaceport and that truth will only continue to grow.”