Pledging that “America will once again reach for the moon,” President Donald Trump Monday ordered the National Air and Space Administration to revive the manned space exploration program that was suspended in 2011.
“(This) marks an important step in returning American astronauts to the moon for the first time since 1972 for long-term exploration and use,” Trump said. “This time, we will not only plant our flag and leave our footprint, we will establish a foundation for an eventual mission to Mars. And perhaps, someday, to many worlds beyond.”
Surrounded by several astronauts and former astronauts in a White House ceremony, Trump paraphrased Neil Armstrong, who famously said “That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” when he first set foot on the lunar surface in 1969. “This is a giant step toward that inspiring future and reclaiming America's proud destiny in space,” Trump proclaimed.
Among those attending the event were two of the 12 humans ever to have walked on the moon, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, who touched the surface shortly after Armstrong's historic step, and Harrison “Jack” Schmitt, who did it as a crewmember of Apollo 17, the last manned mission to the moon in 1972.
Trump noted that the signing ceremony came exactly 45 years to the day after Schmitt's moonwalk with Apollo 17 commander Eugene Cernan.