Trump and NASA in rare agreement of manned flight to Mars and beyond
US Congress unanimously vote for manned exploration of Mars
President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed a law that said manned missions to deep space, including to Mars, would be the US space agency’s main goal in the decades to come.
According to the text -- adopted by a rare unanimous vote in the Senate and House of Representatives -- NASA will work toward the goal of “a crewed mission to Mars in the 2030s.”
The law also highlights the importance of the deep space capsule Orion, which is under development and aims to carry humans further into space than any spaceship ever has.
Orion will be launched atop the “Space Launch System” (SLS), which the space agency has described as the most powerful rocket ever built.
NASA “shall continue the development of the fully integrated Space Launch System, including an upper stage needed to go beyond low-Earth orbit, in order to safely enable human space exploration of the Moon, Mars, and beyond over the course of the next century,” said the text.