US: The United States is planning a revitalised new space programme, writes Conor O'Clery in New York.
US President George Bush yesterday announced an ambitious new space programme aimed at putting astronauts back on the moon by 2015 to create a way-station for robotic and manned space voyages to Mars and beyond.
"We do not know where the journey will end but we know this, human beings are headed into the cosmos," Mr Bush said at NASA headquarters in Washington.
As the first step in a three-point programme, the US would resume shuttle flights soon and complete its work on the 16-nation International Space Station by 2010, Mr Bush said.
The ageing shuttle fleet would then be retired after 30 years of service.
Second, the US would begin developing a new, manned exploration vehicle to explore beyond the Earth's orbit, the first of its kind since the Apollo Command Module.
Called the Crew Exploration Vehicle, the craft would be developed and tested by 2008 and conduct its first manned mission no later than 2014.
The Crew Exploration Vehicle would also transport astronauts and scientists to the International Space Station after the shuttle was retired.
Third, the United States would return to the Moon as early as 2015 and no later than 2020 and use it as a stepping stone for more ambitious missions," the president said.
A series of robotic missions to the Moon, similar to the Spirit Rover that is sending images from Mars, would begin exploring the lunar surface no later than 2008 to research and prepare for future human exploration.
Using the Crew Exploration Vehicle, humans would conduct extended lunar missions as early as 2015, with the goal of living and working there for increasingly extended periods.
Mr Bush said the extended human presence on the Moon would enable astronauts to develop new technologies and harness resources to produce fuel and breathable air.
It would also reduce the costs of further exploration as lunar-based spacecraft could escape the Moon's lower gravity (one sixth that of Earth) using less energy at less cost than Earth-based vehicles.
Despite the high-flown rhetoric in his election-year speech, Mr Bush proposed only a modest $1 billion in extra spending for the new venture, with $11 billion coming from federal funds already committed over the next five years.
This means that even if he wins a second term in office it will be up to his successors at the White House to finance a programme likely to cost hundreds of billions of dollars.
NASA organised a conversation for the President with astronaut Michael Foale on the space station 240 miles above the Earth to coincide with the announcement.
"I know that I'm just one chapter in an ongoing story of discovery," said Foale, adding that he was certain that "NASA's journey is just beginning".
Mr Bush told the gathering of space veterans and scientists at the space agency headquarters that "mankind is drawn to the heavens for the same reason we were once drawn to unknown lands and across the open sea".
"We choose to explore space because doing so improves our lives and lifts our national spirit. So let us continue the journey," he said.
The new course would give NASA a "new focus and vision" and they would "build new ships to carry man forward into the universe," he said.
"In the past 30 years no human has set foot on another world or ventured more than 386 miles into space, roughly the distance from Washington to Boston. It is time for America to take the next step ... and extend a human presence across our solar system." Robotic missions would serve as trail blazers, but "we need to see and examine and touch for ourselves, and only human beings are capable of adapting to the inevitable uncertainties posed by space flight."
As knowledge improved "we may discover resources that will boggle our imagination" , he said.
Mr Bush announced the creation of a panel of experts to establish the programme under former Air Force Secretary Pete Aldridge, and he directed NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe to direct all NASA's efforts toward the new goals.
It is 32 years since man walked on the Moon. Since then the US has lost 23 astronauts in space accidents, the latest when the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas last year.