NASA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump wants to send astronauts where no man has gone before.
Trump will authorize the acting NASA administrator Robert M. Lightfoot Jr. to ‘lead an innovative space exploration program to send American astronauts back to the moon, and eventually Mars’ during a White House signing ceremony…
The directive, Gidley said, will push NASA to ‘refocus … on its core mission of space exploration’ and if Trump does send astronauts back to the moon, they would be the first to visit the lunar landscape since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
Trump’s pick for NASA administrator — Jim Bridenstine, a Republican congressman from Oklahoma — has yet to be confirmed. He has come under withering criticism from Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, who wields considerable power over the space program.
Both Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have made it clear since the 2016 campaign that they would like to send astronauts back to the moon.”
-Dan Merica, “Trump to send astronauts back to the moon — and eventually Mars,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, Dec. 11, 2017 01:46pm