The Trump administration will direct NASA to land humans on the Moon again, Vice President Mike Pence has said, reversing ex-president Barack Obama's vision of reorienting the space agency's focus towards Mars. The announcement is a return to the vision of former president George W Bush, which was deferred when president Obama reoriented the space agency toward a journey to Mars. Pence stressed that the US would lead in space again under the Trump administration. The announcement marks a fundamental change for the space agency, which has been focused on sending humans to Mars since 2010, without any plans for landing people on the Moon. He approved the development of a big new rocket, the Space Launch System, and a deep space capsule called Orion.

Source: dna October 07, 2017 09:00 UTC