President Bush is set to announce next week that the United States will return to a bold human space exploration program. The proposed plan will see the completion of the International Space Station as soon as possible, humans returning to the Moon by 2013, the construction of a base on the Moon. The long term plan will see astronauts visit asteroids, and eventually, a human journey to Mars. As part of this plan, the US will need to develop a whole new group of spacecraft, but they’ll use European rockets in the interim. The President will ask Congress for an additional $800 million for NASA in 2005, and then increase NASA’s budget by 5% over the next five years.
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