National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Administrator Jim Bridenstine told reporters on a conference call on Monday that the agency is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission to put a man on the moon with a bold prediction about the future of space exploration.

Bridenstine said President Donald Trump wants to “plant an American flag on Mars.”

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“The President’s Space Policy Directive-1, it says to utilize the resources of the Moon, and then it says to use the capabilities and the technologies that we develop at the Moon and go on to Mars,” Bridenstine said. “Mars is the goal.”

“The President has been clear,” Bridenstine said. “We want to plant an American flag on Mars.” “That was in his 4th of July speech, which I think was a great reminder of what our ultimate goal is.”

“Yes, we’re going sustainably to the Moon, but we’re doing it so that we can learn how to live and work on another world and take all of that capability and technology on to Mars,” Bridenstine said….

“The United States at the time was trying to prove that its economic system and its political system were superior to try to get alignment from the rest of the world with us, and ultimately, we achieved the objective, which was to get to the Moon,” Bridenstine said, noting that the United States did a total of six missions to the moon and that twelve men walked on the lunar surface.

And Bridenstine also pointed out that the space race changed to “an amazing achievement of diplomatic capability” as Russia and the United States continue their cooperative space missions for more than 20 years.’

And now the threat to space exploration is one that comes from domestic not international politics….

Bridenstine also spoke about the resources on the moon that can benefit the United States, including “hundreds of millions of tons of water ice on the South Pole of the moon” and one-sixth of the gravity as Earth making it easier to launch aircraft from the moon.

“But when we land on the Moon in 2024, between now and then, we have to aggregate a lander in orbit around the Moon at what we call the ‘Gateway,’ which is a small space station that will be in orbit around the moon,” Bridenstine said.

“Gateway is underway,” Bridenstine said. “We’ve gone under contract for the first element, the power, and propulsion element of the Gateway.”… (Excerpted from Breitbart News article by Penny Starr)

Did the moon landing 50 years have an impact on you? What do you think about making space exploration a priority? Leave a comment.