Moon is star of congressional hearing on NASA's future

WASHINGTON — The Oklahoma lawmaker considered the front-runner to be NASA’s next administrator wants the U.S. to re-establish its dominance on and around the moon.

“We all want to get to Mars in 2033 (but the moon) is critically important to the geo-political position of the United States of America,” GOP Rep. Jim Bridenstine said Thursday. “Mars is the horizon goal. It’s critical. We need to get there (but) the moon I believe is necessary.”

Bridenstine’s comments, made during a House Science, Space and Technology Committee hearing on NASA’s future, adds more fuel to the speculation that the Trump administration favors a return to the moon that President Obama largely abandoned due to cost concerns.

The space program did not get much attention in last year's presidential race. But those advising Trump on the future of the space program have touted a return to the lunar surface — which astronauts last visited in 1972 — a sore point for some.

“No boots-on-the-ground human exploration venture has been accomplished since Apollo 17, 44 years ago,” Tom Young, former director of NASA’s Goddard Spaceflight Center in Maryland, told the committee. “We have the opportunity to rectify this disappointment in the next couple of decades.”

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Trump has given no indication when he will name a new administrator for the space agency.

There seems to be widespread support — certainly among Republicans — for a return to the lunar surface that would include some sort of permanent presence. If cost allows.

Shortly after he took office, Obama canceled the Constellation program that would have returned astronauts to the moon after a panel of experts warned the cost of a vehicle to ferry astronauts to the surface was prohibitive.

But the moon has crept back in vogue given China’s increasing designs on winning the space race, the notion that there are commercial possibilities associated with a lunar settlement, and the ability to conduct important deep-space research useful for the eventual mission to Mars.

And, judging by the tenor of Thursday’s hearing, there’s a strong sense that a return to the moon would provide the public morale boost America’s space program has been missing for decades.

The biggest obstacle is cost. But backers of a moon mission believe aerospace firms have made enormous technological progress in the past decade and may be able to help blunt the expense through innovation and cost-sharing.

Even if a lunar landing becomes a mission again, getting there could take years. Former U.S. senator (and Apollo 17 astronaut) Harrison Schmitt, who supports a moon mission, told the committee it might not be until 2025.

Prospects of returning astronauts to deep space were boosted Wednesday by NASA acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot’s announcement that the agency will study the feasibility of including crew on the first integrated flight of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft rather than wait several years.

Thomas Stafford, who commanded the Apollo 10 mission that in 1969 performed the first rendezvous around the moon, urged lawmakers to return to the scene of one of America’s greatest accomplishments.

“I know it’s not been fashionable to talk about the moon,” he told the committee. “But the moon is important.”