The moon, Mars and the next frontier for space exploration – WESH 2 Orlando

After decades of the U.S. government successfully leading the nation's space aspirations and activities, why go private?There are really two reasons for launching astronauts commercially. One, it saves money. Two, it lets NASA focus on bigger things. Much bigger things. NASA wants to head to the moon and Mars, and, by the way, so does SpaceX. Let's look at the possibility of getting to the moon in four years.You couldn't blame Christina Koch for asking directions. After all, she hadn't been on Earth for almost a year -- 328 days, to be exact. Her record-breaking flight, ending in February, is counted as another step toward NASA's goal of returning to the moon to stay, and moving on to Mars. That's the real purpose of the space station, which has been occupied for about 20 years now. This is how the human species is learning to live off the planet, and this is how the United States will get them there. It's called the Space Launch System, or SLS.Its unprecedented power and capabilities will send American astronauts farther than ever before. It's the largest rocket ever built by the agency and a monumental engineering feat in its own right, said NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine.It is a testament to American ingenuity with small and large businesses in 44 states contributing to its design and assembly. The SLS is in fact America's rocket.It is 21 stories tall and fitted with four engines harvested from the old space shuttles. The SLS first stage will be equipped with booster rockets modified from space shuttle days. It'll be topped with a brand-new Orion spacecraft for trips to the moon and, someday, Mars. It will launch from a former space shuttle launch pad, 39B, where the breaking dawn was recently shattered by a rumble of a different kind.The water deluge is a test of the system that absorbs the powerful sound waves of a launching rocket so they don't damage the rocket on the way up. Just this month, NASA has declared the launch pad complete and ready for flights to the moon. Even the swing-arms on the launch tower have been tested.The first SLS rocket is at a NASA center in Mississippi for a test of its rocket engines. After that, it will come to Kennedy Space Center for a test flight, without astronauts, next year. When astronauts do fly, they'll head for a mini space station NASA wants to build near the moon. From there, they'll board one of two landers that are on the drawing boards now. One would be a tall, three-stage affair, dwarfing the Apollo 11 landers. Another would be more low-slung, allowing the astronauts to easily step out, closer to the ground. Teams designing and building these landers were spun up in just six months, a quarter of the time it would normally take. The Trump Administration is promising so much money to get them finished on time that even the NASA administrator can't believe it.One of the most noteworthy features of the 2021 fiscal budget this is crazy one of the most noteworthy features of the 2021 fiscal budget, is the $3.3 billion President Trump has directed for the human landing system, Bridenstine said.But the five-year moon-landing plan announced last year is already bogging down. Congress did not fully fund it last fall, and the coronavirus crisis has stopped work on the SLS, delaying its first launch. But the Administration is suggesting it will have no patience with problems like these; it is holding fast to the timeline, which now shows only four years until boots on the moon.Let me be clear. The president's made it clear that we're going to accomplish this goal by any means necessary. In order to succeed, we are going to focus on the mission over the means. In four years' time, we return astronauts to the moon and make sure that the next man and the first woman on the moon are Americans. Our administration is absolutely committed to this goal, Vice President Mike Pence said.That could open the door for guess who? SpaceX is not only about to try to become the first in nine years to fly astronauts from the Space Coast; it wants a piece of the moon and Mars business, too. SpaceX's proposal for a moon lander would be to fly its planned Starship all the way from the Earth to the moon, with no expensive space station needed along the way. The company is building Starships in Texas, and has built Starship parts or prototypes in Cocoa, in Brevard County. SpaceX could even attempt a mission to the moon and Mars by itself, as a private concern.I think we should do our best to become a multi-planet species and to extend consciousness beyond Earth, and we should do it now, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said.Musk is using all the billions he's pocketing from NASA to build his gigantic Starships. The Starship would be the most ambitious space vehicle ever built, far outdistancing anything NASA has done. A hundred people could fly and live on a Starship, he says, and the fuel and supplies they'd need could be rapidly supplied by multiple launches of its first stage, the Falcon Super Heavy.You could fly the booster 20 times a day; you could fly the ship three times a day. That's what I mean by rapid reusability, Musk said.And that's the real purpose of SpaceX. The upstart, visionary company has come out of nowhere to beat the aerospace giants, and become the organization that returns astronaut launches to American soil. But its plans are much bigger than that. Starships are intended not only to fly to Mars, but to colonize it something that has never been possible in all of human history, until right now.The window has been opened. Only now, after 4.5 billion years, has that window opened. That's a long time to wait, and it might not stay open for long. I think we should do our best to become a multi-planet species and to extend consciousness beyond Earth, and we should do it now, Musk said.

After decades of the U.S. government successfully leading the nation's space aspirations and activities, why go private?

There are really two reasons for launching astronauts commercially.

One, it saves money.

Two, it lets NASA focus on bigger things.

Much bigger things.

NASA wants to head to the moon and Mars, and, by the way, so does SpaceX.

Let's look at the possibility of getting to the moon in four years.

You couldn't blame Christina Koch for asking directions. After all, she hadn't been on Earth for almost a year -- 328 days, to be exact.

Her record-breaking flight, ending in February, is counted as another step toward NASA's goal of returning to the moon to stay, and moving on to Mars.

That's the real purpose of the space station, which has been occupied for about 20 years now.

This is how the human species is learning to live off the planet, and this is how the United States will get them there. It's called the Space Launch System, or SLS.

Its unprecedented power and capabilities will send American astronauts farther than ever before. It's the largest rocket ever built by the agency and a monumental engineering feat in its own right, said NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine.

It is a testament to American ingenuity with small and large businesses in 44 states contributing to its design and assembly. The SLS is in fact America's rocket.

It is 21 stories tall and fitted with four engines harvested from the old space shuttles. The SLS first stage will be equipped with booster rockets modified from space shuttle days. It'll be topped with a brand-new Orion spacecraft for trips to the moon and, someday, Mars. It will launch from a former space shuttle launch pad, 39B, where the breaking dawn was recently shattered by a rumble of a different kind.

The water deluge is a test of the system that absorbs the powerful sound waves of a launching rocket so they don't damage the rocket on the way up.

Just this month, NASA has declared the launch pad complete and ready for flights to the moon.

Even the swing-arms on the launch tower have been tested.

The first SLS rocket is at a NASA center in Mississippi for a test of its rocket engines. After that, it will come to Kennedy Space Center for a test flight, without astronauts, next year.

When astronauts do fly, they'll head for a mini space station NASA wants to build near the moon. From there, they'll board one of two landers that are on the drawing boards now. One would be a tall, three-stage affair, dwarfing the Apollo 11 landers. Another would be more low-slung, allowing the astronauts to easily step out, closer to the ground.

Teams designing and building these landers were spun up in just six months, a quarter of the time it would normally take.

The Trump Administration is promising so much money to get them finished on time that even the NASA administrator can't believe it.

One of the most noteworthy features of the 2021 fiscal budget this is crazy one of the most noteworthy features of the 2021 fiscal budget, is the $3.3 billion President Trump has directed for the human landing system, Bridenstine said.

But the five-year moon-landing plan announced last year is already bogging down. Congress did not fully fund it last fall, and the coronavirus crisis has stopped work on the SLS, delaying its first launch. But the Administration is suggesting it will have no patience with problems like these; it is holding fast to the timeline, which now shows only four years until boots on the moon.

Let me be clear. The president's made it clear that we're going to accomplish this goal by any means necessary. In order to succeed, we are going to focus on the mission over the means. In four years' time, we return astronauts to the moon and make sure that the next man and the first woman on the moon are Americans. Our administration is absolutely committed to this goal, Vice President Mike Pence said.

That could open the door for guess who?

SpaceX is not only about to try to become the first in nine years to fly astronauts from the Space Coast; it wants a piece of the moon and Mars business, too.

SpaceX's proposal for a moon lander would be to fly its planned Starship all the way from the Earth to the moon, with no expensive space station needed along the way.

The company is building Starships in Texas, and has built Starship parts or prototypes in Cocoa, in Brevard County.

SpaceX could even attempt a mission to the moon and Mars by itself, as a private concern.

I think we should do our best to become a multi-planet species and to extend consciousness beyond Earth, and we should do it now, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said.

Musk is using all the billions he's pocketing from NASA to build his gigantic Starships.

The Starship would be the most ambitious space vehicle ever built, far outdistancing anything NASA has done.

A hundred people could fly and live on a Starship, he says, and the fuel and supplies they'd need could be rapidly supplied by multiple launches of its first stage, the Falcon Super Heavy.

You could fly the booster 20 times a day; you could fly the ship three times a day. That's what I mean by rapid reusability, Musk said.

And that's the real purpose of SpaceX. The upstart, visionary company has come out of nowhere to beat the aerospace giants, and become the organization that returns astronaut launches to American soil.

But its plans are much bigger than that.

Starships are intended not only to fly to Mars, but to colonize it something that has never been possible in all of human history, until right now.

The window has been opened. Only now, after 4.5 billion years, has that window opened. That's a long time to wait, and it might not stay open for long. I think we should do our best to become a multi-planet species and to extend consciousness beyond Earth, and we should do it now, Musk said.

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The moon, Mars and the next frontier for space exploration - WESH 2 Orlando