US President Donald Trump, on December 11, 2017, signed his administration's first 'Space Policy Directive 1' which formally orders NASA to start preparations for a lunar mission. The new plans from Donald Trump come at a time when China is working on their ambitious moon program.
As Trump has signed this new directive, former President Barrack Obama's plan to send humans to a near-earth asteroid now stays abandoned.
Lunar Mission: The first step before the giant leap
During his speech, Donald Trump vowed that the US will continue to remain as the leader in space, as they will soon kickstart their mission to the moon in the near future. The President also hinted that the lunar mission will be the first step to establish a foundation for the crucial Mars mission.
"We are the leader and we're going to stay the leader, and we're going to increase it many folds. 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," said Donald Trump, Reuters reports.
President Trump signed the directive in the Oval Office surrounded by members of the National Space Council including former lunar astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Harrison Schmitt. The grand ceremony also featured a small Moon rock collected Schmitt's Apollo 17 mission in 1972. Since then, humans have never visited Moon, and the exact reason behind this still remains unclear.
Donald Trump debunks conspiracy theories
Earlier, many conspiracy theorists claimed that the Moon is actually a secret alien base, and they have warned humans never to come back to the natural satellite. On the other hand, some other groups of weird thinkers believe that humans have never landed on the moon citing anomalies in lunar photographs.
