Trump orders NASA to send American astronauts to the Moon, Mars

Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks before signing an executive order while surrounded by small business leaders in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Monday, Jan. 30, 2017.

President Donald Trump signed Space Policy Directive 1 on Monday, directing NASA to return Americans to the surface of the moon and onward to Mars.

The order declares NASA must lead U.S. astronauts in “an innovative space exploration program.” The announcement continues the White House push to end dependence on Russia for manned launches, which began when the Space Shuttle program retired six years ago.

It has been 45 years to the day since Apollo 17 landed, the most recent mission to the moon.

Trump’s declaration makes him the third president in the last thirty years to announce a return to the moon. On the 20th anniversary of the first moon landing, Apollo 11, President George H. W. Bush announced the National Space Council of the time would “report back” with “concrete recommendations” to reach “the Moon and Mars and beyond.” In 2004, President George W. Bush unveiled a three-step vision for space exploration, saying the U.S. must “return to the moon by 2020.”

“With the experience and knowledge gained on the moon we will then be ready to take the next steps of space exploration: human missions to Mars and to worlds beyond,” Bush said at NASA’s headquarters in 2004.

In October the National Space Council met for the first time since it was disbanded in 1993, led by Vice President Mike Pence, several White House officials and space industry executives.

“America seems to have lost our edge in space,” Pence said. “Rather than lead in space, too often we’ve chosen to drift and, as we learned 60 years ago, when we drift we fall behind.”

Pence said America “will win the 21st century in space.” He identified the council as a way to build a coherent vision for U.S. policy and strategy in space.