Powrót na Księżyc w 2024 roku? BY KRZYSZTOF KANAWKA ON 26 MARCA 2019
(...) Dwudziestego szóstego marca 2019 nastąpiło publiczne wystąpienie National Space Council. W tym wydarzeniu wziął udział wiceprezydent USA – Mike Pence. Jednym ze zdań wiceprezydenta USA było nadanie kierunku rozwoju NASA na najbliższe 5 lat: powrót człowieka na Księżyc. Na to zdanie administrator NASA – Jim Bridenstine – odpowiedział
“Challenge accepted. Now let’s get to work.”Oczywiście, szybko pojawiły się głosy krytyki. Przede wszystkim NASA w chwili obecnej dysponuje zbyt małym budżetem, by być w stanie już teraz rozpocząć prace nad załogowym lądownikiem księżycowym. Ponadto, potężna rakieta SLS doświadcza dalszych opóźnień i pojawiają się już sugestie, by skorzystać z komercyjnych rakiet – co oczywiście wymusza przynajmniej dwustartową konfigurację. Wreszcie – nie wiadomo dokładnie w jakiej formie miałby ten powrót na Księżyc nastąpić. NASA przez lata wyraźnie akcentowała potrzebę stałego powrotu na Srebrny Glob – nie “krótkich wypadów” o wysokim koszcie. (...)
https://kosmonauta.net/2019/03/powrot-na-ksiezyc-w-2024-roku/Pence calls for NASA to land astronauts on the moon within five yearsMarch 26, 2019 Stephen Clark

(...) Bridenstine said NASA’s review of commercial launch options, which would have likely included a combination of SpaceX and United Launch Alliance rockets, showed there is an opportunity to use commercial boosters for deep space missions in the future, but that the Space Launch System provides the surest path to achieving a lunar landing by 2024.
“If we want to achieve 2024, we have to have SLS,” Bridenstine said.
But in his speech, Pence cautioned the NASA and its contractors should not assume the Space Launch System is the only path to the moon.
“We must accelerate the SLS program to meet this objective, but know this, the president has directed NASA and Administrator Jim Bridesnteine to accomplish this goal by any means necessary,” Pence said. “In order to succeed … we must focus on the mission over the means. You must consider every available option and platform to meet our goals, including industry, government and the entire American space enterprise. Our administration is committed to this goal.”
Pence continued by expressing commitment to the Marshall Space Flight Center, a facility once helmed by German-American rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, the chief architect of the Saturn 5 moon rocket.
“But to be clear, we’re not committed to any one contractor. If our current contractors can’t meet this objective, then we’ll find ones that will,” Pence said. “If American industry can provide critical commercial services without government development, then we’ll buy them. And if commercial rockets are the only way to get American astronauts to the moon in the next five years, then commercial rockets it will be.
“Urgency must be our watch word,” Pence said. “Failure to achieve our goal to return an American astronaut to the moon in the next five years is not an option.”
But the Trump administration’s $21 billion fiscal year 2020 budget request for NASA released March 11 proposes a $375 million cut in funding for the Space Launch System, and would defer the introduction of a more powerful SLS upper stage capable of launching Orion crew capsules and modules for a mini-space station in lunar orbit on a single mission. (...)
https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/03/26/pence-calls-for-nasa-to-land-astronauts-on-the-moon-within-five-years/