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Space news: Donald Trump pledges US will put first astronaut on Mars after Moon return | Science | News

Mr Trump was addressing the RNC conference to receive the party’s official presidential nomination for 2020.

He will face Democratic Party challenger Joe Biden in the election on November 3.

Speaking to around a thousand supporters the president said: “We will launch a new age of American Ambition in space.

“America will land the first woman on the moon – and the United States will be the first nation to plant its flag on Mars.” “We will launch a new age of American Ambition in space" (Image: GETTY) "The United States will be the first nation to plant its flag on Mars” (Image: GETTY)

NASA is partnering with Elon Musk’s SpaceX company to take its astronauts back to space from American territory.

In May SpaceX Crew Dragon carried NASA astronauts from the US for the first time since the space shuttle programme was wound down.

After returning to the Moon in 2024 NASA hopes to work towards the first human Mars landing in the early 2030s.

However this timetable has been deemed unrealistic by Christopher Wanjek, author of ‘Spacefarers: How Humans Will Settle the Moon, Mars, and Beyond’. NASA is working with SpaceX to return humans to the Moon (Image: GETTY) Trending

Speaking to Express.co.uk Mr Wanjek said: “This plan to get humans back to the Moon by 2024 is ill-fated.

“It was a bad idea to begin with and now with the pandemic it’s certainly not going to happen.

“What you want to do, and what NASA was planning on doing, is slowly get back there by setting up an infrastructure.

“Send some robots, map out the area, lay down some infrastructure.”

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