2.10.2018

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine spoke Monday of NASA's legacy, saying it "changed the world for the better" — a legacy that began exactly 60 years ago.

"Over six incredible decades, we've brought the world an amazing number of bold missions and science and aviation and human exploration," Bridenstine said in a short video on NASA's website. "NASA, and its workforce, have never failed to raise the bar of human potential or to blaze a trail into the future. And we are still doing it."

Bridenstine is the 13th person to lead the space agency. The first administrator, T. Keith Glennan, took the helm Oct. 1, 1958, when NASA opened its doors for the first time. President Dwight Eisenhower had signed the National Aerospace and Space Act (which created the agency) just a few months prior.

Since then, NASA has put 12 men on the moon, sent countless probes and rovers into the far reaches of the galaxy and was instrumental in building and maintaining the International Space Station.

And the agency plans to reach even farther into the universe in the coming years, Bridenstine said, thanks to President Donald Trump's pledge to return to an age of human exploration.

"We celebrate our legacy today with great promise, and a strong direction from our president to return to the moon and go on to mars," Bridenstine said. "America will continue to lead in space, we will reach new milestones that change the world and we will inspire the next generation to build on our legacy."

Trump's $19.9 billion proposed budget for the next fiscal year tasks NASA with launching an uncrewed Orion flight by 2021, followed by a launch of Americans around the moon in 2023. It also would set aside $504.2 million in the coming year to begin working on the foundation on a $2.7 billion Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway — basically a mini-space station orbiting the moon where astronauts could live and work.

It also would transition operations on the International Space Station to commercial companies by 2025, meaning the orbiting laboratory would stop receiving federal funding. This plan, however, has received a lot of backlash from Congress members, who have sponsored measures to extend the space station's life — and funding levels — to 2030.

The budget still must be approved by Congress. Last week, Trump signed a continuing resolution to avert a government shutdown and fund the space agency until Dec. 7 while Congress continues to hash out the details.

"The next decade promises to be full of adventures that only science fiction writers dreamed of and only NASA and its partners will accomplish," NASA's website states.

Alex Stuckey covers NASA and the environment for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her at alex.stuckey@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey.

Quelle: Chron

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