President Trump has said he wants to “unlock the mysteries of space” and “focus on stretching the envelope of space exploration.”
He may now have the chance to send astronauts to orbit the moon, a mission that carries significant risk — but which, if executed smoothly, could bring huge benefits to accelerating future missions to deep space.
Robert Lightfoot, NASA’s acting administrator, wrote in a memo to employees this week that he was asking the human spaceflight team to review the possibility of adding crew to an EM-1 test flight planned for next year.
That flight will be the maiden voyage for NASA’s SLS rocket, designed for deep space missions, such as a future one to Mars, along with an Orion crew capsule. The test flight is set to spend three weeks in space, with several days orbiting the moon.
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