Trump wants to make space exploration great again – New York Post

President Trump peeled back the curtain on his plans for the US space program on Tuesday singing a sweeping NASA policy bill into effect and reaffirming the agencys commitment to human exploration and putting a man on Mars.

For almost six decades NASAs work has inspired millions and millions of Americans to imagine distant worlds and a better future right here on Earth, Trump explained during the signing, which was attended by astronauts, lawmakers and scientists.

With this legislation, we support NASAs scientists, engineers, astronauts and their pursuit of discovery, he said. Its been a long time since a bill like this has been signed reaffirming our national commitment to the core mission of NASA, human space exploration, space science and technology.

The bill, dubbed the NASA Transition Authorization Act of 2017, was co-authored by Trumps campaign trail rivals Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. Marco Rubio, both of whom were in attendance for the signing. The event marked the first time President Trump spoke about the space program in public since the election.

The new NASA legislation mainly keeps the agency on the same trajectory its been since its last authorization act in 2010, according to the Houston Chronicle.

The bill extends a number of important space programs, including the Hubble Telescope and the International Space Station through 2024 and calls for a crewed mission to Mars by 2033. It also states that manned missions to deep space would be NASAs main goal in the decades to come.

It is the first time in seven years weve had a NASA authorization bill, Cruz said, joking with Trump that they now had the ability to send Congress to space.

We could, Trump replied. What a great idea that could be.

Beginning in October, the legislation calls for $19.5 billion to be distributed throughout NASA for the space agencys 2018 fiscal year. Trump said the money will be used to fund missions with companies in the private sector, such as SpaceX.

This bill will make sure that NASAs most important and effective programs are sustained and orders NASA to continue, Trump said.

Transitioning activities to the commercial sector where we have seen great progress. Its amazing whats going on, he added. So many people and so many companies are so into exactly what NASA stands for. So the commercial and the private sector will get to use these facilities, and I hope theyre going to be paying us a lot of money, because theyre going to make great progress.

In addition, Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday that Trump plans to relaunch the National Space Council which has been sitting on the shelf since George H.W. Bush left office.

Were going to be bringing together the best and the brightest in NASA and also in the private sector, Pence said.

Trumps decision to focus on space travel is a far cry from what Barack Obama did with NASA during his time in office. In addition to funneling billions of dollars into earth science and global warming research, the former commander-in-chief once publicly blasted the idea of putting another man on the moon famously saying, Weve been there before.

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Trump wants to make space exploration great again - New York Post