Setting Sights

"We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard," said John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Forty-one years later:

President Bush will announce plans next week to send Americans to Mars and back to the moon and to establish a long-term human presence on the moon, senior administration officials said Thursday night.

Bush doesn't plan to send Americans to Mars anytime soon; rather, he envisions preparing for the mission more than a decade from now, one official said. The president also wants to build a permanent space station on the moon.

The initiatives are part of a broad, new commitment to manned space flight, three officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.


Beneficial for science, inspiring for mankind. I hope this turns out to be true.

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