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"NASA has largely been living off the successes of space projects launched up to a decade ago — including the now 'dead' Mars Opportunity rover. It hopes to launch its first manned space flight since the demise of the Space Shuttle program in 2011.
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But now the Trump administration appears to be determined to get a new Moon project off the ground. And it's eager to pay private companies to carry its cargoes.
NASA has been considering the prospect of a 'Lunar Gateway' space station placed in orbit around the Moon, acting as a stopover point for missions to the surface and, perhaps, Mars.
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NASA documents indicate the earliest date for an American to tread the lunar surface again is 2028." foxnews.com/science/nasas-new-grand-space-race-plan
Hopefully we can speed that one up.
(Score: 2) by martyb on Friday February 22 2019, @02:07AM
As I understand it, the reason the USA stopped the space race was the general public did not see the value of going to the moon again. At that time, the economy was going downhill and spending $$$$ on space when there were pressing problems and protests down here on Earth which were also vying for funding... well, eventually, Apollo got cut.
As for the shuttle being military. My understanding was that to try and salvage enough funding to get it off the ground (heh!), they needed to form an alliance with the defense department. That resulted in new requirements that made the shuttle more expensive. If NASA could have gotten away with funding the shuttle without involving the military, I'm sure they would have actually preferred that.
Agreed that China is in it for the long game. ISTR they are planning a moon base in not--too-many years. Yup! Here's a link [space.com]. I have little doubt that they are capable of making it happen, too. That just *might* wake up the powers-that-be in the USA to sit up and pay attention. May even get more funding for NASA. OTOH, there would be plenty of funding for NASA, and IMNSHO much more progress, if congress just told NASA what they wanted and left it to NASA to figure out how they wanted to go about getting it!
Wit is intellect, dancing.