After Trump push, NASA studying manned trip around moon

The US is studying a possible manned mission around the moon as early as next year, marking the first such trip since the Apollo era ended in the early 1970s.

Following requests from the White House, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has formed a team to examine accelerating earlier plans to launch a crew by 2021, William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator of the agency’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, said. 

“We have a good, crisp list of all the things we would physically have to change” on the launch vehicle under development, Gerstenmaier said on a conference call with reporters. “We asked the team to take a look at potentially what additional tests would be needed to add crew, what the additional risk would be.”

Resuming manned missions would mark a leap toward deeper exploration of space, including one day putting humans on Mars. President Donald Trump has indicated support for a more ambitious programme, saying in his inaugural address that the US is “ready to unlock the mysteries of space.”

Last week, NASA’s acting administrator circulated a memo calling for a review of Exploration Mission 1 and 2. Under the original plan, the programme’s Space Launch System rocket and companion Orion capsule were scheduled to make an unmanned flight around the moon in 2018 and carry a crew on the second flight three years later.