NASA Is Flying Blind In Getting Humans Back To Moon, Congress Says

NASA's plan to get humans back to the Moon for the second time is not ready yet, and Congress has criticized the space agency for its failure to deliver a solid plan.

NASA originally aimed to send humans back to the lunar surface by the year 2028. However, on March 26, the timeline for the mission was shortened by five years when Vice President Mike Pence challenged NASA to launch a manned flight to the Moon by the year 2024.

Last April 2, in a meeting with the House of Science Committee, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said that they are amending the president’s budget request to meet the vice president’s challenge. The amendment will include the costs and details of the accelerated mission.

Congress requested NASA to show the amendment by April 15, but it has been three weeks since then and NASA has not yet delivered on the changes. Congress is apparently becoming frustrated by NASA’s slow response.

Representative Kendra Horn of the Oklahoma 5th Congressional District criticized NASA and asked why the amendment is not ready during a committee hearing held May 8.

“The lack of planning evidence so far is no way to run our nation’s human space exploration program,” Horn said. “The 2024 missive left NASA in a tizzy scrambling to develop a plan and hastening to pull together a budget amendment that still has not been delivered to Congress.”

“We recognize that this is a really serious challenge we have to weigh in front of us, and we need a really solid plan,” Willian Gerstenmaier defended. “We need to make sure it’s all integrated and all put together in a way that really makes sense.”

Gerstenmaier is NASA’s associate administrator for human exploration and the expert of yesterday’s hearing.

Another factor that may be affecting the delay of the amendment is the approval of the White House. The developed plan budget of NASA and the White House must still be approved by Congress.

Gerstenmaier said that the amendment will probably be released in one to two weeks.

“At present we have a White House directive to land humans on the Moon in five years, but no plan, and no budget details on how to do so, and no integrated human space exploration roadmap laying out how we can best achieve the horizon goal, Mar,” Horn said. “In essence, we’re flying blind.”

Meanwhile, in last week’s Senate hearing, Representative Mo Brooks of Alabama asked NASA how much the proposed budget for the accelerated program is estimated to be.

“At this point in time it’s still under discussion,” Mark Sirangelo, a NASA special assistant, said.

NASA’s mission to send humans back to the Moon was originally planned for 2028. The plan is to create a station called Gateway that will serve as a hub on the lunar surface.

A giant rocket called the Space Launch System and a crew capsule named Orion will fly astronauts to the Gateway. On top it all, NASA also needs to develop a human lunar lander for astronauts to explore the surface of the Moon.