Jim Bridenstine

We have now gotten other direction from the President to go in 2024, and we are moving rapidly.

Commercial data is no longer going to be really just a pilot program, but we're looking to operationalize that commercial data because of the work of this Committee.

The focus now is getting humans to the moon as soon as possible.

In order to achieve 2024, we need to take some of those elements and move them forward to achieve that objective.

I believe that this is a great opportunity for this agency. I think it's a great opportunity for the country.

The moon is the best place to prove those capabilities and technologies. The sooner we can achieve that objective, the sooner we can move on to Mars.

We want to achieve a Mars landing in 2033. In order to do that, we have to accelerate other parts of the program.

I think it's important for the Nation to continue advancing our progress and for us, as leaders of this country, to demonstrate a continued advancement.

We're focused like a laser right now on the James Webb Space Telescope, which is a big mission.

It's important for this country to focus on finding life on another world.

That's what NASA should be doing. And we look forward to advancing that agenda.

Eventually, by the end of this year, we will be launching American astronauts on American rockets from American soil.

We're going to build a coalition of international partners to go sustainably to the moon.

This time we go, the President has said he wants to go sustainably.

The President has issued now Space Policy Directive-1. He says that we should go back to the moon.

In short, we need specifics, not rhetoric because rhetoric that is not backed by a concrete plan and believable cost estimates is just hot air.

That would be a determination by somebody other than the NASA Administrator.

The idea that you can order something and have it delivered to your front door with, no kidding, a drone in a matter of minutes.

We want to be able to fly from New York to L.A. in a matter of 2 hours instead of 6 hours.

Mars is in fact the horizon goal. The moon is the tool that we need to get to Mars.

It is a concern. We are in a position now, because of the International Space Station, we are commercializing low Earth orbit rapidly.

The vice president was very clear, and he was talking on behalf of the President. This goes right back to space policy directive-1, that was signed over a year ago by the President to go to the Moon sustainably with commercial partners…

If we are going to achieve boots on the Moon, which is what the vice president called us to do yesterday by 2024, the answer is absolutely we need to move as quickly as possible.

We are to remain the preeminent space faring nation.

The question is: Could there be life there? That is what we are trying to characterize.