Trump Seeks $21Bln NASA Budget With Focus On Lunar Exploration, Colonization - Bridenstine

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 12th March, 2019) President Donald Trump has asked Congress to provide his administration with $21 billion in funds for space exploration, including plans to return to the Moon within the next decade, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said on Monday.

"At $21 billion, this budget represents a nearly 6 percent increase over last year's request and comes at a time of constrained resources across the Federal government," Bridenstine said a statement after the White House unveiled Trump's 2020 budget proposal earlier in the day.

Bridenstine was referring to last year's budget request by Trump, which totaled $19.592 billion, instead of the $21.5 billion ultimately approved by Congress.

As a result, Trump's budget actually represents a small decrease in NASA's budget.

NASA plans to go to the moon "in the next decade in with innovative, new technologies and systems to explore more locations across the lunar surface than ever before," he added.

The decade will begin with a series of small commercial delivery missions to the Moon beginning as early as this year, according to NASA. The agency plans to use new landers, robots and eventually humans by 2028 to conduct science across the entire lunar surface.

In addition, NASA will develop plans for the first round-trip to Mars in which samples from the Red Planet will be brought back to Earth, the release said.