Stephen Hawking on a New York stage during the announcement of the Breakthrough Starshot initiative in April 2016. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters)Humans are overdue for a return trip to the moon, Stephen Hawking has just opined. Cernan remained a lifelong advocate for space travel, testifying before Congress in 2011 that American space exploration was on “a path of decay” after the Obama administration shuttered NASA's Constellation moon program. The probes would fly by Mars in an hour, Pluto in days and Alpha Centauri in 20 years, Hawking said. Read more:Stephen Hawking just moved up humanity’s deadline for escaping EarthStephen Hawking: ‘I fear that I may not be welcome’ in Trump’s America'Why Stephen Hawking believes the next 100 years may be humanity’s toughest test

Source: Washington Post June 21, 2017 11:08 UTC