Donald Trump's desire to send a man to Mars prompts promise to revive US space programme

'America must be as dominant in space as we are here on earth', says Vice President Mike Pence

Astronauts Mark Vande Hei and Randy Bresnik, work on the International Space Station on Thursday, Oct. 5, 2017 (NASA TV via AP)

Donald Trump’s desire to use a renewed American presence on the moon as a launching pad for Mars has prompted his vice president to promise that America will revive its space programme.

“We will return American astronauts to the moon, not only to leave behind footprints and flags but to build the foundation we need to send Americans to Mars and beyond”, Mike Pence said at the inaugural meeting of a reconstituted National Space Council. “The moon will be a stepping stone, a training ground”.

After warning that America was losing its space supremacy - noting that the country had not sent an astronaut into low-earth orbit in nearly half a century and has since 2011 paid Russia to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station - Mr Pence issued a ringing call to again make America a leader in space exploration.

“The president has charged us with laying the foundation for America to maintain a constant commercial human presence in low-earth orbit,” Mr Pence, and “from there we will turn our attention back toward our celestial neighbours”.

Mr Pence cast the goal as a matter of safeguarding America’s “prosperity, security and identity”, and he cautioned that foreign adversaries were taking advantage of America losing its edge. He cited intelligence reports that China and Russia were developing technology to disrupt US satellites.

“Other nations have seized the opportunity to stake their claim in the infinite frontier”, Mr Pence said, urging that “America must be as dominant in space as we are here on earth”.

The Trump administration’s budget proposal for NASA sought to cut the space agency’s budget from $19.3 billion in the previous fiscal year to about $19 billion, or roughly three percent.

Science advocacy organisations mostly hailed that as good news given Mr Trump’s moves to enact deeper reductions at other science units like the Environmental Protection Agency.