NASA administrator Jim Bridenstein promised to send the next man and first woman to the moon by 2024, stressing that the US government has already allocated all the necessary funds for this.
From open sources NASA reports that the agency aims to establish a permanent human presence on the Moon until the end of this new decade, that is, more than 50 years after the success of the Apollo program.
Mr. Bridenstine is confident that the return of astronauts to the moon will be a kind of starting point for the next manned flight to Mars. Here's what he said on the matter:
'The increased support from the President of the United States comes at a critical time as we lay the groundwork for the first woman and the next man to land at the Moon's South Pole by 2024. This budget keeps us on this path. We are gearing up to meet the key goals this year related to the Space Launch System and the Orion and Gateway spaceships. These vehicles form the core of our Artemis' mission.
NASA's Artemis program is named after the ancient Greek goddess of the hunt, who was the daughter of Zeus and the twin sister of Apollo. The name reflects NASA's goal of including female astronauts on all future missions, as opposed to the Apollo program, which was attended only by men.
However, before humans can fly to the moon again, the US space agency will carry out a series of unmanned and robotic launches to the moon under the Artemis program.
The Artemis 1 mission will be a bareboat test for the Orion spacecraft and SLS rocket. The test launch will take Orion to and from the moon, which will test the spacecraft's hardware.
After that, the mission 'Artemis 2' is already planned, within which astronauts will already be sent into space. The 21-day mission will test all Orion's life support systems.
But already, as part of the Artemis 3 mission, by 2024 NASA is already really planning to send people to the surface of the Moon, and by 2028 to ensure the “stable presence” of mankind on its surface.
