KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — NASA's administrator says an increase in federal funding will help the U.S. get back to the moon within a decade — and then man can shoot for Mars.
- Record 2020 federal budget asks for $21 billion for NASA
- This is a 6 percent increase from the previous year's request
- NASA chief says it get Americans back to moon in next decade
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine made the remarks Monday at Kennedy Space Center in front of dozens of center workers.
Of President Donald Trump proposed record $4.7 trillion federal budget for 2020 announced Monday, NASA's $21 billion budget request is a 6 percent increase over last year.
The agency wants a permanent international presence on the moon, and the goal is to explore the entire surface, including the poles, where a vast amount of water ice can be used to do just that.
The goal is to create a sustainable path, which combines the commercialization of low-Earth orbit — new Gateway system is designed to orbit the moon like a small space station — with NASA heading back to the moon on the upcoming Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket. That will carry the Orion spacecraft, hauling cargo, and eventually astronauts, to the moon.
Bridenstine touted the support of Trump and says there is bipartisan support in Congress to approve the proposed budget.
"(We're) very strong in the president's budget request, and we are thrilled as an agency that he is backing up not just with the directive, but with his budgets," Bridenstine said. "And this is going to help us build that sustainable return to the moon."
A series of small commercial delivery missions to the moon could begin this year, with landers, robots, and human science missions on the lunar surface over the next 10 years. Mars missions would follow that.