U.S. to resume Moon program to prepare for Mars mission

Almaty. December 12. Silkroadnews - The U.S. will resume the Moon program to prepare for Mars mission, the Kazakh Telegraph Agency (KazTAG) reports with reference to Kommersant.
“The signed directive will refocus the U.S. space program and marks an important step in returning American astronauts to the Moon for the first time since 1972. The exploration of the Moon will establish the foundation for Mars mission. This time we will not only plant our flag and leave our footprint. The program will be a giant move in the path of American leadership in space and create additional jobs,” the U.S. President Donald Trump’s directive, released on the NASA’s website, said.
The Moon program was closed by the decision of the U.S. former president Barack Obama in 2011. The program considered the use of a natural satellite of the Earth as a permanent bridgehead for Mars mission, but then the project of manned expeditions to the red planet with the use of an asteroid as a staging post became a priority.
Note, the U.S. is the third world leader that announced the large-scale Moon research program plans in December. On December 7, China stated it plans to create a robotic base there, and on December 11 it became known that Russia would submit a proposal to the United Nations on mining asteroids and the Moon.