US will send humans back to moon 'in the next five years', Mike Pence claims, Trend reports citing Mirror.
It’s been almost 50 years since humans last set foot on the moon , but it won’t be long until we return, according to Mike Pence.
Speaking at the fifth meeting of the National Space Council, the US Vice President revealed the US’s plans to send humans back to the moon by 2024.
Mr Pence said: “Just as the United States was the first to reach the moon in the 20th century, so too, we’ll be the first nation to return astronauts to the moon in the 21st century.”
During his talk, which took place at the US Space & Rocket Centre in Alabama today, he added that he was speaking on behalf of Donald Trump .
He said: “I’m here on the president’s behalf to tell the men and women of the Marshall Space Flight Centre and the American people, that [the US] will return to the moon within the next five years.”
Mr Pence’s ambitions line up pretty well with NASA’s plans.
The space agency has previously revealed that it plans to send humans back to the moon by 2022.
On its website, NASA said: “The first mission in 2020 will test the new spacecraft systems flying together for the first time, without crew, and the second flight is targeted for 2022 to take people for a flight test around the Moon.”
Humans last set foot on the moon back in 1972, during NASA’s Apollo 17 mission.