Donald Trump Request To Send Astronauts To Deep Space With NASA First Orion Mission Next Year

NASA's first Orion mission is set to launch in 2018 unmanned to travel from Earth to the Moon and back followed by a manned mission in 2021. But president Donald Trump has redirected the NASA's plan and set a course with astronauts on board the Orion spacecraft as early as next year.

NASA's acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot announced on February 15 to conduct a study to assess the feasibility of adding a crew on the Exploration Mission 1 or EM-1. According to the report made by NASA, the assessment will review technical feasibility, risks, benefits, additional work required, resources needed and any associated schedule impacts to add new crew to the first mission.

Likewise, NASA'S associate director for the Human Explorations and Operations Missions Directorate Bill Gerstenmaier also explained that the assessment made is to evaluate the advantages and the disadvantages of having a crew to the EM-1. Since the announcement, evaluations are well underway and they are creating a list of everything to change from a hardware standpoint to add a crew.

For the Orion team, the steps made by NASA are not going to interrupt their plans for EM-1 and Em-2. "But the assessments will benefit the overall program either way," Gerstenmaier said.

However, per Daily Mail, Deputy Administrator for Explorations Systems Development in Washington William Hill said, "there were already early discussions with the transition team regarding the acceleration of the crew capability even before the inauguration." The results are expected to be complete early spring.

The dramatical speed up of sending mankind beyond the orbit of the Earth for the first time would make a great space achievement in U.S. since 1972. This could give President Donald Trump a Nixonesque moment and can also prove the worth of NASA's SLS mega rocket as it aims for funding.

Also, Bob Walker, a former congressman who chaired the House Science Committee and an adviser of Trump transition team said that action taken to NASA is potential for some time during the first term of Donald Trump being able to go and do a lunar orbit. "This would be another precursor to ultimately landing," Walker added.

The European Space Agency and aerospace company Airbus have agreed to build the module for the second mission. A manned mission to fly around the moon in 2021, which could be now pushed forward. "I think sometimes within the second term of Trump administration, it is possible to put a landing vehicle on the moon." Bob Walker explained.