NASA Studying Manned Trip Around the Moon After Prod From Trump
- Agency looks at accelerating flight to as early as next year
- U.S. hasn’t sent astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit since 1970s
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The U.S. 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 Friday. Preliminary results of the review should be ready in about a month.