{"id":12404,"date":"2020-06-18T21:14:12","date_gmt":"2020-06-18T13:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/new-nasa-spaceflight-chief-makes-no-guarantees-about-2024-moon-landing-goal\/"},"modified":"2020-06-18T21:14:12","modified_gmt":"2020-06-18T13:14:12","slug":"new-nasa-spaceflight-chief-makes-no-guarantees-about-2024-moon-landing-goal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/new-nasa-spaceflight-chief-makes-no-guarantees-about-2024-moon-landing-goal\/","title":{"rendered":"New NASA spaceflight chief makes no guarantees about 2024 moon landing goal"},"content":{"rendered":"

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION<\/p>\n

\"\"
Kathy Lueders was named associate administrator of NASA\u2019s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate earlier this month. Credit: NASA\/Kim Shiflett<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kathy Lueders, NASA\u2019s newly appointed head of human spaceflight operations, said Thursday that without a crystal ball, she could not give a yes-or-no answer when asked whether she believes NASA can put astronauts back on the moon by the end of 2024 as called for by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to try,\u201d she told NASA Watch during a teleconference. \u201cWe\u2019re going to try, right? Sometimes it\u2019s the trying that gets us closer to the goal than the not trying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many space observers view the 2024 goal as unrealistic \u2014 one former NASA manager recently called it a \u201cpipe dream\u201d given the technical challenges \u2014 but Lueders said, \u201cif you start and you say I can\u2019t get there, well, you\u2019re not going to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to start and try to get there,\u201d she said. \u201cIf things come up along the way where technically it takes us longer, then we\u2019ll go figure it out. But right now, the team is trying.\u201d<\/p>\n

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine added that \u201ca simple yes-or-no answer is not the right approach here because everything is a range of probabilities. And that\u2019s that\u2019s true (of) everything from a subsystem to a system to the entire architecture. It\u2019s a range of probabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think what we\u2019ve done with hiring Kathy Lueders to be the head of human exploration is we\u2019ve increased the probability of success, and that\u2019s what we work toward every day,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re asking me if we\u2019re going to land on the moon in 2024, I\u2019m going to tell you, yes, we can do it. We know it\u2019s hard. We know that there\u2019s bound to be challenges in front of us. But it is absolutely possible, and we\u2019re going to work towards it every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

NASA originally planned to return to the moon with astronaut landings in 2028. The Trump administration moved the target up to 2024 and NASA has been working toward that goal under what the agency now calls the Artemis program.<\/p>\n

NASA plans two test flights of its Space Launch System mega rocket and Orion crew capsule, one unpiloted and the other with a crew on board, before attempting to land the next man and the first woman on the moon in 2024 using a commercially developed lunar lander.<\/p>\n

Lueders\u2019 predecessor, Douglas Loverro, unexpectedly resigned May 19, three weeks after awarding the lander contracts, leaving a figurative mountain of work on the desk for Lueders. As associate administrator for spaceflight, Lueders now oversees the International Space Station, the Commercial Crew Program, Artemis and other major initiatives.<\/p>\n

Lueders most recently served as manager of NASA\u2019s Commercial Crew Program, overseeing the development of new crew capsules built by SpaceX and Boeing. SpaceX launched the program\u2019s first piloted mission May 30, sending astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley on a smooth flight to the International Space Station.<\/p>\n

Agency insiders say Lueders provided firm leadership at the helm of the Commercial Crew Program and Bridenstine said Thursday she \u201chas the right set of skills and the right leadership qualities to take our agency deeper into the solar system, and I know she\u2019s committed to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Said Lueders: \u201cI do feel like I\u2019m filling big footprints. And looking down, I realize I need to grow a few shoe sizes, quick. But I know after working across the agency over the last 28 years, that HEO has a great NASA team, a great industry team and great international partners. And I\u2019m really looking forward to jumping in and helping them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lueders said the Crew Dragon capsule that carried Hurley and Behnken to the space station is operating smoothly. While it has electronically slept during most of its stay at the station, the crew activates its systems once a week to monitor performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Crew Dragon\u2019s been doing great,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s been waking up every week, they do check outs every week \u2026 and it goes back into what we call quiescent mode, which is kind of like sleep mode. \u2026 It\u2019s been doing so wonderfully, people forget it\u2019s kind of like a maiden voyage for this Crew Dragon and so far, she\u2019s been doing great.\u201d<\/p>\n

NASA managers have not yet decided how long to keep Hurley and Behnken aboard the station. Both astronauts are helping station commander Chris Cassidy, the only other American on board, carry out research and maintenance, and next week Behnken will join him for the first of two spacewalks to replace a set of the lab\u2019s aging solar array batteries.<\/p>\n

The Crew Dragon\u2019s eventual landing date will depend on a variety of factors ranging from weather in the Atlantic Ocean splashdown zone to the time needed to inspect the craft before clearing another crew for launch on an operational six-month station mission in September.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, we\u2019re looking at the (Crew Dragon) coming back in the early August timeframe,\u201d Lueders said. \u201cBut obviously, we\u2019ve got to continue to monitor progress and make sure we\u2019re wisely using Doug and Bob as best we can to continue to provide additional safety and maintenance of the International Space Station.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lueders is the first woman to head NASA\u2019s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. She said Thursday, 37 years to the day after Sally Ride became the first American woman in space, that she did not initially think of herself as a role model.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s been amazing to me over the last few days is seeing all the tweets, Snapchats, Instagrams, all the notes from all the girls out there,\u201d she said. \u201cThat really helped me realize the power of my being first that means to them. They\u2019re able to see themselves in me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very honored by that, and I\u2019m expecting really big things from them. You better get going! I think when we can see ourselves in the people that are out there, it makes us realize we can do it. And that\u2019s very, very important for not only girls out there, but for all groups of people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Kathy Lueders was named associate administrator of NASA\u2019s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate earlier this month. Credit: NASA\/Kim Shiflett Kathy Lueders, NASA\u2019s newly appointed head of human spaceflight operations, said Thursday that without a crystal ball, she could not give a yes-or-no answer when asked whether she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[304,800,1545,466,1834,625,190,640],"class_list":["post-12404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-artemis","tag-human-landing-system","tag-human-spaceflight","tag-jim-bridenstine","tag-kathy-lueders","tag-moon","tag-nasa","tag-orion"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12404"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12404\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}