NASA needs more money to get astronauts on the moon by 2024

Jim Bridenstine.
(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The White House is insisting NASA send astronauts to the moon by 2024, but for that to happen, the agency is going to need more money.

Last week, Vice President Mike Pence said NASA must get humans back on the moon within the next five years, and if they are unable to meet this timetable, "we need to change the agency, not the mission." During a town hall meeting on Monday, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine told employees the agency is going to need a lot of additional funding, but was otherwise low on details. He did reveal that one plan involves building an outpost called a Gateway that could be placed in orbit around the moon; the problem with that is this doesn't exist yet, and NASA also doesn't have a way to get astronauts back and forth between the Gateway and the lunar surface.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.