![]() “We understand, when we go to Mars - and Americans are going to Mars - that we’re going to have to have developed new technologies, new equipment and gain new experience that we can only gain on the moon. “That’s 100% correct,” Pence told Garrett, sitting a few feet away from a recently completed Orion capsule at the Kennedy Space Center. In the meantime, despite speculation to the contrary, the vice president said the Trump administration is firmly committed to sending astronauts back to the moon within five years as part of NASA’s newly named Artemis program. “We’re going to continue to look to them to give us alternatives to … provide American leadership in human space exploration.” While NASA and, for now, the Trump administration are committed to the SLS for government moon missions, “we’re going to continue to lean on” SpaceX and Blue Origin, Pence said. In a recent interview with TIME Magazine’s Jeff Kluger on “CBS Sunday Morning,” Musk claimed SpaceX could reach the moon in just two years with an unpiloted mission and “maybe within a year or two of that we could be sending crew. SpaceX also launches Falcon Heavy boosters and is developing an even more powerful rocket called “Starship.” SpaceX already launches supplies to the International Space Station - its 18th resupply flight is scheduled for takeoff Wednesday - and is developing a piloted Crew Dragon spacecraft to carry astronauts to and from the lab complex. He singled out SpaceX, the California rocket company founded by Elon Musk, and Blue Origin, a company owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.īlue Origin is testing a sub-orbital spacecraft that can carry researchers, science instruments and space tourists on brief flights to the lower fringes of space and is designing more powerful heavy lift rockets that will be built at a sprawling manufacturing facility just outside the Kennedy Space Center. Because the president really does believe that American leadership in human space exploration is essential.” We’re committed to the work being done in Huntsville with the Space Launch System.”īut, he added, “if we can’t get there on the platforms that we’re building today, the rockets we’re building today, we’re going to get there by any means necessary. “This administration will not make that mistake. “But the truth is that since the start of the Space Launch System program, many administrations have underfunded it, have (not given) it the attention that it deserves. The SLS “is behind schedule, and it’s over budget,” Pence said in an interview Saturday with CBS News chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett. While Pence said the Trump administration remains committed to the huge rocket’s development, he warned the government will turn to other providers if NASA’s “traditional” contractors cannot deliver. NASA hopes to launch the first unpiloted test flight of an SLS rocket and an Orion capsule in 2021, years later than originally planned. He also said the administration strongly supports continued development of the Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lift booster, built by Boeing and managed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and the Lockheed Martin-built Orion crew capsule that will carry astronauts to the moon. Credit: Office of the Vice Presidentĭespite appearances and a presidential tweet suggesting otherwise, the United States is “100%” committed to sending astronauts back to the moon in 2024 and establishing a long-term, sustainable presence there as a stepping stone to eventual piloted flights to Mars, Vice President Mike Pence said in an interview for CBS News’ “The Takeout.” STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Vice President Mike Pence speaks Saturday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
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