Elon Musk reacts as President Trump delivers his inaugural handle after being sworn in because the forty seventh president of the US.
Kevin Lamarque/Pool/AFP/Getty Photos
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Kevin Lamarque/Pool/AFP/Getty Photos
President Trump vowed to ship astronauts to Mars throughout his second inaugural handle. “We are going to pursue our Manifest Future into the celebrities,” he mentioned, promising to ship astronauts to plant the American flag on Mars.
Elon Musk, the SpaceX CEO and Trump ally, was seated behind the president and gave a vigorous thumbs up on the comment.
Trump’s remark may sign a shift within the federal authorities’s focus towards the Purple Planet. Whereas Congress reauthorized NASA’s funds with a give attention to moon exploration final yr, touchdown people on Mars is a significant objective of Musk’s SpaceX.
The corporate is creating Starship, the most important rocket ever constructed, with the final word objective of reaching Mars.
However federal regulators have restricted the testing of the rocket, which may discharge tens of 1000’s of gallons of contaminated water into the protected wetlands that encompass the take a look at website in Boca Chica, Texas. Such laws may very well be eased below the brand new Trump administration.
Final week, the experimental starship exploded over Puerto Rico throughout its seventh take a look at flight.
NASA has the Perseverance rover on a Mars mission now. Earlier this month, the company introduced methods to simplify its mission of retrieving invaluable samples stashed on the rover, with the objective of creating it cheaper.
At a rally at Capital One Area, Musk mentioned, “We will take DOGE to Mars,” referring to the Division of Authorities Effectivity, the incoming administration’s new cost-cutting effort that Trump has tapped Musk to steer. “I imply, are you able to think about how superior it is going to be to have American astronauts plant the flag on one other planet for the primary time? How inspiring would that be.”