Bush to shoot for moon, then Mars
Posted on: Friday, 9 January 2004, 06:00 CST
WASHINGTON -- President Bush will announce next week a program to return American astronauts to the moon to build a permanent base as preparation for a trip to Mars sometime after 2014, administration officials said Thursday.
One official declined to say when the first moon shot would take place but said it would be soon. The last man to set foot on the moon was American astronaut Eugene Cernan in 1972.
A return to the moon would mean that NASA would have to design a rocket from scratch. Only three of the rockets capable of lifting humans to the moon remain, and the design includes obsolete technology.
Only John F. Kennedy's 1961 decision to send Americans to the moon by 1970 approaches Bush's idea in audacity.
The space shuttle, though useful for experiments, never leaves the Earth's orbit. The International Space Station has drawn criticism from scientists and members of Congress alike as a $100 billion boondoggle.
Less than a year ago, NASA's human spaceflight program suffered a major setback when the space shuttle Columbia broke up above Texas. All seven astronauts aboard died.
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