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Vice President Mike
Pence speaks at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Aug. 23, 2018 in Houston, Texas about
the future of human space exploration and the agency’s plans to return to the
Moon as a forerunner to future human missions to Mars. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky
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Ken Kremer -- SpaceUpClose.com -- 23 Aug 2018
CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – In a rousing speech at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Texas, Thursday, Vice President Mike Pence called on NASA to establish a permanent presence at the moon and place a crew at humanity’s first ever lunar orbiting outpost by 2024 followed eventually by manned missions to Mars.
CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – In a rousing speech at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Texas, Thursday, Vice President Mike Pence called on NASA to establish a permanent presence at the moon and place a crew at humanity’s first ever lunar orbiting outpost by 2024 followed eventually by manned missions to Mars.
“This time has come, we really believe, for the United States of America to take what we have learned over these so many decades, put your ingenuity and creativity to work, and establish a permanent presence around and on the moon," said VP Mike Pence, during an Aug. 23 speech today at JSC.
Pence leads the recently reconstituted National Space Council, and clearly has an interest in space. Although his speech was short on specifics and funding announcements, the overall thrust was very positive for the space community after a long period of lack of funding and enthusiasm, sometimes seeming indifference by several recent US Presidents.
Pence made his remarks Thursday, Aug. 23, to at a packed auditorium full of JSC workers, astronauts as well as NASA and government officials.
He said that NASA SLS heavy lift rocket and Orion crew capsule would be fully funded.
The next Americans who set foot on the Moon will start their journey by stepping through the NASA Orion hatch. And this extraordinary spacecraft will one day bridge the gap between our planet and the next."
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Artists concept of NASA’s Lunar Gateway visited by Orion
crew vehicle. Credit: NASA
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In
a major course change from the Obama Administration, the Trump Administration
has redirected NASA to focus its human spaceflight efforts on returning Americas
to the Moon in the next decade as the top priority as soon as possible.
This became US national space policy when President Trump signed Space Policy Directive-1.
“We're also renewing our national commitment to discovery and to exploration, and to write the next great chapter of our nation's journey into space. That's why, last December — 45 years almost to the minute since Jack Schmitt and Gene Cernan landed on the moon — President Donald Trump signed Space Policy Directive-1.”
“It is now the official policy of the United States of America that we will return to the moon, put Americans on Mars, and once again explore the farthest depths of outer space,” Pence stated.
“We're going to do it. We're going to do it.”
“Furthermore, Pence asked space agency workers to rededicate themselves to the task of making “NASA awe the world with our daring heroes, with our discoveries, and with our relentless determination to bring new horizons and new vistas within the reach of mankind.”
Specifically he mentioned NASA proposed lunar space station called the Lunar Orbital Platform- Gateway.
Pence said the a crew should be launched by 2024 and that $500 million in funding was provided by the Administration to get the ‘Gateway’ hardware off the drawing board, built by American industry and onto a rocket.
“We're only a few short years away from launching the gateway's first building blocks into space, turning science fiction into science fact. And our administration is working tirelessly to put an American crew aboard the Lunar Orbital Platform before the end of 2024,” Pence elaborated.
“Men and women of the Johnson Space Center: It's not a question of if; it's just a question of when”
"Last year, NASA began to work with American innovators to design Gateway's unique electrical propulsion system. We're working with the Congress to provide an unprecedented $500 million to move the Lunar Orbital Platform from proposal to production," he said.
“Now, we're on the cusp of a new golden age of exploration. I believe it with all my heart. And we've got the courageous astronauts that are ready to lead us there again.”
“As NASA continues to push back the borders of this still-new frontier, we will empower America's private pioneers as well to cultivate the vast expanses that we've already explored. We'll ensure that American security in space is attended to as well.”
Pence said its time to look up and criticized the Obama Administration cancellation of the Constellation Program started by the Bush Administration which would have sent American’s back to the Moon by 2020.
He cited a quote from the movie Interstellar.
“We used to look up at the sky and wonder at our place in the stars. Now, we just look down and worry about our place in the dirt.”
“That’s not how Americans think,” Pence said. “Truthfully, that kind of thinking led people in the past to even cancel the Constellation program. That would have put Americans back on the moon by 2020 and set the stage for exploration of Mars and beyond. That decision was a mistake.”
Pence also praised the work of the International Space Station.
“The International Space Station has been an unqualified success.”
He also praised NASA commercial crew efforts by SpaceX and Bosing to restore the US capability to launch Americans to space once again from US soli after a long hiatus since the shuttle retirement in 2011.
“Soon and very soon American astronauts will return to space on American rockets launched from American soil.”
This became US national space policy when President Trump signed Space Policy Directive-1.
“We're also renewing our national commitment to discovery and to exploration, and to write the next great chapter of our nation's journey into space. That's why, last December — 45 years almost to the minute since Jack Schmitt and Gene Cernan landed on the moon — President Donald Trump signed Space Policy Directive-1.”
“It is now the official policy of the United States of America that we will return to the moon, put Americans on Mars, and once again explore the farthest depths of outer space,” Pence stated.
“We're going to do it. We're going to do it.”
“Furthermore, Pence asked space agency workers to rededicate themselves to the task of making “NASA awe the world with our daring heroes, with our discoveries, and with our relentless determination to bring new horizons and new vistas within the reach of mankind.”
Specifically he mentioned NASA proposed lunar space station called the Lunar Orbital Platform- Gateway.
Pence said the a crew should be launched by 2024 and that $500 million in funding was provided by the Administration to get the ‘Gateway’ hardware off the drawing board, built by American industry and onto a rocket.
“We're only a few short years away from launching the gateway's first building blocks into space, turning science fiction into science fact. And our administration is working tirelessly to put an American crew aboard the Lunar Orbital Platform before the end of 2024,” Pence elaborated.
“Men and women of the Johnson Space Center: It's not a question of if; it's just a question of when”
"Last year, NASA began to work with American innovators to design Gateway's unique electrical propulsion system. We're working with the Congress to provide an unprecedented $500 million to move the Lunar Orbital Platform from proposal to production," he said.
“Now, we're on the cusp of a new golden age of exploration. I believe it with all my heart. And we've got the courageous astronauts that are ready to lead us there again.”
“As NASA continues to push back the borders of this still-new frontier, we will empower America's private pioneers as well to cultivate the vast expanses that we've already explored. We'll ensure that American security in space is attended to as well.”
Pence said its time to look up and criticized the Obama Administration cancellation of the Constellation Program started by the Bush Administration which would have sent American’s back to the Moon by 2020.
He cited a quote from the movie Interstellar.
“We used to look up at the sky and wonder at our place in the stars. Now, we just look down and worry about our place in the dirt.”
“That’s not how Americans think,” Pence said. “Truthfully, that kind of thinking led people in the past to even cancel the Constellation program. That would have put Americans back on the moon by 2020 and set the stage for exploration of Mars and beyond. That decision was a mistake.”
Pence also praised the work of the International Space Station.
“The International Space Station has been an unqualified success.”
He also praised NASA commercial crew efforts by SpaceX and Bosing to restore the US capability to launch Americans to space once again from US soli after a long hiatus since the shuttle retirement in 2011.
“Soon and very soon American astronauts will return to space on American rockets launched from American soil.”
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SpaceX Crew Access Arm walkway
for NASA astronauts boarding commercial Crew Dragon capsule for missions to the
International Space Station is lifted with cranes and installed into position to
the top of Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center- as seen on Aug. 20,
2018. Credit: Ken
Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com
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Just this week SpaceX installed the Astronaut walkway at
Launch Complex 39A which will be a bridge for crews to board the Crew Dragon
capsule for mission to the ISS stating in 2019 - see my articles and photos.
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SpaceX Crew Access Arm walkway
for NASA astronauts boarding commercial Crew Dragon capsule for missions to the
International Space Station is lifted with cranes and installed into position to
the top of Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center- as seen on Aug. 20,
2018. Credit: Ken
Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com
|
Pence concluded with an exhortation to space
workers to redouble their efforts with the support of the American people.
“Go forth and meet that destiny together and do
what Americans have always done, let’s seize it with ingenuity and courage,
let’s seize it with faith. You can be confident the American people have faith
in you.”
Watch for Ken’s continuing onsite coverage of NASA, SpaceX, ULA,
Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Orbital ATK and more space and mission reports direct
from the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida and
Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia.
Stay tuned here for Ken's continuing Earth and Planetary science and human spaceflight news: www.kenkremer.com –www.spaceupclose.com – twitter @ken_kremer – email: ken at kenkremer.com
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