that it does not think the upper stage would be ready in time and has asked that funding for the upper stage be deferred.
In particular, he wrote that “we are concerned that the bill’s approach to developing a human lander system as fully government-owned and directed would be ineffective. The approach established by the bill would inhibit our ability to develop a flexible architecture that takes advantage of the full array of national capabilities — government and private sector — to accomplish national goals.”
But it demonstrates how precarious even NASA’s most-trumpeted plans can be and why the agency has been unable to return astronauts to the moon since the end of the Apollo program in 1972. Several presidents have proposed grand missions to the moon and Mars in the years since, only to see those efforts come up short, whether because of a lack of congressional buy-in or a change in administrations. When he was president, George W. Bush proposed going to the moon.
House members have said they are skeptical of the plan and that they need to see a detailed timeline and funding plan before they would vote to put money behind it. In an interview Tuesday , Rep. Kendra Horn , the chair of the House space subcommittee, said NASA has yet to lay out its plan in any detail or how it would pay for it.A program as ambitious as getting to the moon or Mars “requires a clear and unambiguous plan, and we’re still waiting for it,” she said.
Are we running low on moon rocks and dust? How ‘bout we spend the money on fixing a few bridges & water systems here in USA, and on combating global warming so we don’t have to find another planet to move to.