TEHRAN, November 29 -NASA plans to announce new commercial partners Thursday in the U.S. space agency's quest to return humans to the moon and eventually Mars for the first time.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) -NASA plans to announce new commercial partners Thursday in the U.S. space agency's quest to return humans to the moon and eventually Mars for the first time.
Administrator Jim Bridenstine will reveal the companies from NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C, at 2 p.m. Eastern on NASA TV and its website, according to a press release.
"Working with U.S. companies is the next step to achieving long-term scientific study and human exploration of the moon and Mars," NASA says in the release Wednesday. "Under Space Policy Directive-1, the agency will lead an innovative and sustainable exploration of the moon together with commercial and international partners."
In a Twitter post, Bridenstine wrote: "The U.S. is returning to the surface of the moon, and we're doing it sooner than you think!"
NASA plans to have astronauts orbiting the moon again by 2023 with a landing a few years later. No one has walked on the moon since December 1972.
The space agency has partnered with SpaceX and Boeing to send astronauts to the International Space Station. SpaceX's Crew Dragon is scheduled for the mission in June and Boeing's Orbital Flight test is set for August.
In February, SpaceX Falcon Heavy was lauded as a successful commercial pairing with NASA. Elon Musk's personal red Tesla Roadster was sent into space en route to the planned orbit of Mars.
Vice President Mike Pence, speaking from the NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, said "Just a couple of weeks ago, the world watched with wonder as the Falcon Heavy blasted off from this very shoreline, and then moments later sent two of its boosters sailing back down to Earth, where they landed side by side, intact, less than a mile from where they'd lifted off.
"Very impressive indeed."
But Pence, who serves as chairman of the revived space council, also said NASA is bogged down by "convoluted maze of bureaucratic obstacles" and "outdated regulatory processes."
As an example, he said "if a company receives its licenses to launch a rocket from the Kennedy Space Center, but then wants to move their mission to California, or even just a few miles away from Cape Canaveral, that same company must complete the entire process all over again, from start to finish.
"The government has figured out how to honor driver's licenses across state lines. There's no reason we can't do the same for rockets."
Source:UPI
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