Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Pence calls for NASA to send humans to the moon within five years
Source: Washington Post
Pence calls for NASA to send humans to the moon within five years
The vice president said if NASA can’t pull off what would be a monumental feat, “we need to change the agency, not the mission.”
By Christian Davenport March 26 at 3:04 PM
Vice President Pence on Tuesday called for American astronauts to return to the lunar surface within five years, a bold and exceedingly difficult challenge that would push NASA to its limits.
In a fiery speech in Huntsville, Ala., Pence repeatedly said the space agency needs to act with a renewed sense of urgency to land humans on the moon for the first time since 1972. And he cast the mission as part of a new space race against superpowers such as Russia and China, which landed a spacecraft on the far side of the moon earlier this year.
But most of all, Pence said that NASA and its major programs have been stifled by a crippling bureaucracy that has prevented it from moving more boldly in human exploration.
“It's not just competition against our adversaries,” Pence said. “We're also racing against our worst enemy: complacency.”
Pence did not provide any details on how the agency would achieve landing humans on the moon in the five-year time frame, a monumental goal that NASA had been hoping to achieve by 2028. He provided no details on the cost or how the mission would unfold. He added that he had learned the details of NASA’s plans only five minutes before stepping onstage. NASA did not immediately respond to a request for more details about the plan or how it would be funded.
-snip-
The vice president said if NASA can’t pull off what would be a monumental feat, “we need to change the agency, not the mission.”
By Christian Davenport March 26 at 3:04 PM
Vice President Pence on Tuesday called for American astronauts to return to the lunar surface within five years, a bold and exceedingly difficult challenge that would push NASA to its limits.
In a fiery speech in Huntsville, Ala., Pence repeatedly said the space agency needs to act with a renewed sense of urgency to land humans on the moon for the first time since 1972. And he cast the mission as part of a new space race against superpowers such as Russia and China, which landed a spacecraft on the far side of the moon earlier this year.
But most of all, Pence said that NASA and its major programs have been stifled by a crippling bureaucracy that has prevented it from moving more boldly in human exploration.
“It's not just competition against our adversaries,” Pence said. “We're also racing against our worst enemy: complacency.”
Pence did not provide any details on how the agency would achieve landing humans on the moon in the five-year time frame, a monumental goal that NASA had been hoping to achieve by 2028. He provided no details on the cost or how the mission would unfold. He added that he had learned the details of NASA’s plans only five minutes before stepping onstage. NASA did not immediately respond to a request for more details about the plan or how it would be funded.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/03/26/pence-calls-nasa-send-humans-moon-within-five-years/
14 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
The Pearly Gates are just on the other side! 
Surely God can get it done.
And by the way, when we landed on the Moon, the top marginal tax rate was around 77%, and we were fighting a war at the time. Today, it's below 40% and we're fighting a war all the time. We don't have the money.