President Promises Trips to Mars, Space Coast Jobs in KSC Speech
Thursday, April 15, 2010
By: Judith Smelser

April 15, 2010 -- President Obama wants NASA to put astronauts into orbit around Mars in about 25 years. The president outlined his vision for the space agency in a speech at the Kennedy Space Center Thursday.

“By the mid 2030’s I believe we can send humans to orbit Mars and return them safely to Earth,” he told an audience of invited guests.  “A landing on Mars will follow, and I expect to be around to see it.”

(Click here to listen to the President's speech.)

The President said he wants NASA to decide by 2015 on a design for a heavy-lift rocket that can take humans into deep space.  He said a new human spacecraft should be ready to start exploring beyond earth orbit by 2025.

U.S. Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) praised Mr. Obama for setting Mars as the destination for the nation’s manned spaceflight program, but he wishes the President had laid out a more ambitious timetable.

“We are not gonna wait five years before we make a decision on the heavy-lift rockets,” he said in a video statement posted on his website. “I think we can make the decision much sooner.”

Nelson, who chairs the U.S. Senate subcommittee that oversees NASA, predicted Congress would make changes to the President’s proposal before passing it.

President Obama also defended his desire to cancel NASA’s plans to go back to the moon.  “We’ve been there before,” he said.

The President said his alternate plan would create thousands of new jobs for the area around Kennedy Space Center.

“Despite some reports to the contrary, my plan will add more than 2,500 jobs along the Space Coast in the next two years, compared to the plan under the previous administration,” he said.  He gave no specific details about what those jobs would be.

He also reminded listeners that the decision to end NASA’s space shuttle program was made before he took office.  9,000 Kennedy Space Center jobs are expected to be lost after the last shuttle flight this fall.  Mr. Obama said he wants to help the area with the transition.

“I’m proposing a $40 million initiative, led by a high-level team from the White House, NASA, and other agencies, to develop a plan for regional economic growth and job creation,” he said, “and I expect this plan to reach my desk by August 15^th.”