GettyDonald Trump has received a reality check from the masters of science, NASA, that he can’t just wave his chubby fingers and launch humans into space.
With his embarrassingly ignorant denial of global warming’s existence, declaring facts and science as ‘fake news’ is Trump’s forte, but the space agency has confirmed it will not launch humans into space again until 2021, not 2019 as the President had wanted.
NASA’s current focus is their developments in a Space Launch System (SLS) rocket which will be used to launch astronauts to Mars, possibly by 2030.
Universal PicturesNASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot said:
We appreciate the opportunity to evaluate the possibility of this crewed flight.
The bi-partisan support of Congress and the President for our efforts to send astronauts deeper into the solar system than we have ever gone before is valued and does not go unnoticed. Presidential support for space has been strong.
NASA will be launching the rocket in 2019 with an unmanned Orion spacecraft on top, known as Exploration Mission 1 (EM-1), for three weeks around the Moon and back, IFL Science reports.
20th Century FoxThe manned flight, EM-2, is planned for 2021 after evaluations of the cost, risk and technical factors of launching a crew in 2019 found it would be unfeasible.
Lightfoot said the mission would cost between $600 million and $900 million to put a two person crew on EM-1 because the spacecraft would have to be upgraded with life support systems and more.
He said:
It really reaffirmed the baseline plan we had in place was the best way for us to go.
Leave EM-1 uncrewed.
Trump has previously joked about getting humans to Mars by 2024 in order that it would take place within his potential second term (shudder), though the odds of him getting impeached are absolutely skyrocketing.
NASA is not the only agency sending humans to space though, with SpaceX and Boeing planning to launch astronauts to space as early as next year.
