Washington • President Donald Trump on Friday sharply criticized NASA for promoting its plan to return to the moon before exploring Mars, a strategy that Trump endorsed in a directive early in his tenure and championed as recently as last month.
"For all of the money we are spending, NASA should NOT be talking about going to the Moon - We did that 50 years ago," Trump said on Twitter. "They should be focused on the much bigger things we are doing, including Mars (of which the Moon is a part), Defense and Science!"
For all of the money we are spending, NASA should NOT be talking about going to the Moon - We did that 50 years ago. They should be focused on the much bigger things we are doing, including Mars (of which the Moon is a part), Defense and Science!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 7, 2019
The tweet, sent from Air Force One as Trump returned from a trip to Europe, did not make clear whether he thinks the strategy should be entirely abandoned or whether he was more concerned about how NASA was branding the strategy.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for clarification.
Trump's tweet was sent shortly after Fox Business host Neil Cavuto questioned on air why NASA is "refocusing on the moon, the next sort of quest, if you will" and asked: "But didn't we do this moon thing quite a few decades ago?"
The policy of first going back to the moon grew from a unanimous recommendation by the new National Space Council, chaired by Vice President Mike Pence, after its first meeting in October 2017.
At a ceremony where Trump signed a directive regarding the policy two months later, he said first returning to the moon would "establish a foundation for an eventual mission to Mars, and perhaps someday, to many worlds beyond."
In a tweet three weeks ago, Trump touted his administration's commitment to space exploration, writing: "Under my Administration, we are restoring @NASA to greatness and we are going back to the Moon, then Mars."
Under my Administration, we are restoring @NASA to greatness and we are going back to the Moon, then Mars. I am updating my budget to include an additional $1.6 billion so that we can return to Space in a BIG WAY!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 13, 2019
In a fiery speech in March, Pence announced that NASA was moving its timeline for landing humans back on the moon up by fours, to 2024. He cast the mission as part of a new space race against superpowers such as Russia and China, which landed a spacecraft on the far side of the moon earlier this year.
Representatives from NASA and the National Space Council did not immediately respond to request for comment on Trump's tweet.
In public documents, NASA has argued that "exploration of the Moon and Mars is intertwined."
"The Moon provides an opportunity to test new tools, instruments and equipment that could be used on Mars, including human habitats, life support systems, and technologies and practices that could help us build self-sustaining outposts away from Earth," the agency says in one document available on its website.
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The Washington Post’s Christian Davenport contributed to this report.
