Donald Trump directs NASA to send astronauts to the Moon for first time in decades

US President, Donald Trump has directed NASA to send Americans to the Moon for the first time since 1972, in order to prepare for future trips to Mars.

This time we will not only plant our flag and leave our footprint,” Trump said at a White House ceremony on Monday as he signed the new space policy directive.

We will establish a foundation for an eventual mission to Mars and perhaps someday to many worlds beyond.

The directive calls on NASA to ramp up its efforts to send people to deep space, a policy that unites politicians on both sides of the aisle in the United States.

The last time US astronauts visited the Moon was during the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s.
On July 20, 1969, US astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the Moon.

Trump, who signed the directive in the presence of Harrison Schmitt, one of the last Americans to walk on the Moon 45 years ago, said “today, we pledge that he will not be the last.”

The better known Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the Moon after Armstrong and a fervent advocate of future space missions, was also present at the ceremony but not mentioned by Trump during his speech.

Former US president George W. Bush also pledged to send Americans to the Moon as part of the Constellation program, which ran from 2005 to 2009.

Constellation was projected to cost $100 billion, and aimed to get boots on the Moon’s surface by the late 2020s.

Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong on the Moon in July 1969, as part of the astronaut Edwin E. Aldrin conducting experiment on the moon's surface, during the Apollo XI space mission. Source:AFP

In 2009, then president Barack Obama deemed it too costly and repetitive of missions already achieved, and cancelled the program in order to focus on reaching Mars by the 2030s.

Trump vowed his new directive “will refocus the space program on human exploration and discovery,” and “marks an important step in returning American astronauts to the Moon for the first time since 1972.” The goal of the new Moon missions would include “long-term exploration and use” of its surface.

We’re dreaming big,” Trump said.

The US said it “will work with other nations and private industry to return astronauts to the Moon, developing the technology and means for manned exploration of Mars and other destinations in the solar system.”