Washington, April 16: US President Barack Obama has said his country should be able to send astronauts to orbit the planet Mars by the mid-2030s.
On Thursday, in a speech at the Kennedy Space Centre, Obama promised an extra 6 billion dollars for space exploration, as he pointed out the details of his new policy for the US space agency.
He said the money will allow for ambitious new plans, including further investigations of Mars.
Obama announced in February that a plan to return Americans to the moon by 2020 would not proceed, however the White House has been under fire for making the announcement.
US astronauts also blasted Obama’s vision for future space exploration, saying Obama’s plans to stop missions would relegate America to a third-rate country.
Veteran US astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Eugene Cernan and James Lovell have signed a letter criticizing the US government’s plans to cut certain National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) plans for space, saying that the Obama Administration would undermine US role in space leadership.
–Agencies