Politics

Pence Says He Wants To Send Astronauts To The Moon Within 5 Years — Including The ‘First Woman’

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Vice President Mike Pence said he plans on sending astronauts to the moon by 2024, and that the next group to go to the moon will include an American woman for the first time in history.

“Just as the U.S. was the first nation to reach the moon in the 20th century, so too will we be the first nation to return astronauts to the moon in the 21st century,” Pence said at a National Space Council meeting in Alabama on Tuesday. “The first woman and the next man on the moon will both be American astronauts, launched by American rockets from American soil.”

Pence’s comments come as President Donald Trump has been pushing for a Space Force, signing a directive to place it under the Air Force in February. The Pentagon submitted a proposal to Congress on March 1, which if approved, would begin the creation of a Space Force.

The vice president asked Congress to appropriate $8 billion over the next five years for Trump’s Space Force during an August 2018 speech at the Pentagon.

Trump first brought up the idea of a Space Force at a rally at the Miramar Marine Corps Air Station base in California in March 2018, receiving a positive reaction from the Marines present in the crowd.

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