Change to Presidential Space Policy

In 2010, President Obama issued a National Space Policy.  This morning, the Federal Register released President Trump’s amendment to that policy.

The 2010 Policy stated that NASA shall  “set far-reaching exploration milestones,” and, by 2025, begin crewed missions beyond the moon, including to asteroids.  Also, the policy directed NASA to send humans to orbit Mars and return them safely to Earth by the mid-2030’s.

The new policy repeals that paragraph and states that NASA shall:

Lead an innovative and sustainable program of exploration with commercial and international partners to enable human expansion across the solar system and to bring back to Earth new knowledge and opportunities. Beginning with missions beyond low-Earth orbit, the United States will lead the return of humans to the Moon for long-term exploration and utilization, followed by human missions to Mars and other destinations;

The new directive does not contain dates, but it directs NASA to return people to the Moon and then on to Mars, and establishes that the lunar missions have long-term exploration and utilization as their goal.