NASA Rejects President Trump Mission Request

NASA will not be sending humans on the inaugural launch of its new rocket system as requested by the Trump administration, officials have announced.

Robert M. Lightfoot Jr., the acting NASA administrator, said President Donald Trump's request to send humans on the Exploration Mission-1 voyage of the new Space Launch System (SLS) rocket is technically feasible but not a good idea considering the cost, time and risk factors involved in such an endeavor, according to a press release Friday.

After studying Trump's February proposition to add a human crew to the three-week mission that will travel farther than the moon, NASA determined the request would add $600 million to $900 million to the already staggering $24 billion price tag. Lightfoot added that it would also delay the already delayed inaugural launch of EM-1.

After weighing the data, NASA said it "will continue pursuing the original plan for the first launch, as a rigorous flight test of the integrated systems without crew."

“We appreciate the opportunity to evaluate the possibility of this crewed flight,” Lightfoot said. “The bi-partisan support of Congress and the president for our efforts to send astronauts deeper into the solar system than we have ever gone before is valued and does not go unnoticed. Presidential support for space has been strong.”

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In the years to come, the new rocket will make several manned voyages into deep space, with plans to eventually take humans to Mars.

NASA said this first unmanned launch is designed to be a flight test of the entire system, adding that it is "one that is challenging in itself and will offer the opportunity to better understand our capabilities and limitations and ultimately build confidence in our ability to safely send crew into deep space."

Already, several setbacks, including technical glitches and a February tornado that struck the Michoud Assembly Facility in Louisiana, where pieces of the rocket are being built, have delayed the inaugural launch to 2019 from its originally planned 2018 launch date.

NASA said it plans to send humans past the moon during its second Exploration Mission-2 journey.

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