NASA History: Richard Nixon – We Should Move Ahead With Bold Exploration of the Planets, Universe
By Space Coast Daily // March 8, 2016
'We should continue to explore the moon'
In March 1970, 230 days after Apollo 11 landed on the moon, Richard Nixon issued his “Statement About the Future of the United States Space Program.”
The statement outlined six specific space objectives:
1. “We should continue to explore the moon.”
2. “We should move ahead with bold exploration of the planets and the universe…As a part of this program we will eventually send men to explore the planet Mars.”
3. “We should work to reduce substantially the cost of space operations…we must devise less costly and less complicated ways of transporting payloads into space.”
4. “We should seek to extend man’s capability to live and work in space… We expect that men will be working in space for months at a time during the coming decade.”
5. “We should hasten and expand the practical applications of space technology… We should continue to pursue other applications of space-related technology in a wide variety of fields, including meteorology, communications, navigation…”
6. “We should encourage greater international cooperation in space.”
A lot has changed over the years, but there is still much work to be done.
In the coming decades, we will see continued exploration of the solar system, a crewed mission to Mars, dramatic reduction in space operations costs, and much more.
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