MERRITT ISLAND, FLORIDA — NASA’s acting administrator Robert Lightfoot announced Wednesday that the space agency is thinking of sending astronauts on a manned mission earlier than planned, possibly within U.S. President Donald Trump’s first term in office. <br /> <br />The Washington Post reports that NASA seems to be taking a bolder, riskier approach after the president made it apparent he wanted the U.S. to retain its dominance in space. <br /> <br />Since the end of the Space Shuttle program, NASA has relied on Russia to send its astronauts into space. <br /> <br />NASA’s Space Launch System, or SLS, rocket was originally slated to go on its first exploration mission in 2018 with an unmanned space capsule. <br /> <br />This timeline calls for the SLS to be launched from the Kennedy Space Center on Sept. 30, carrying the Orion space capsule into space in a mission known as EM-1. <br /> <br />The capsule would orbit the moon for about three weeks before returning to earth, splashing down into the ocean with the help of parachutes. <br /> <br />A second crewed mission, the EM-2, was scheduled for 2021, with an alternative launch date set for 2023. But with new plans to consider the addition of a crew to EM-1, it seems astronauts could be going on the Orion as early as 2019. <br /> <br />For that, NASA needs an SLS rocket with a more powerful second stage, known as the Exploration Upper Stage, or EUS. The design for the EUS already passed a major review, but it has yet to be built. <br /> <br />Another hurdle that the agency needs to overcome is human-rating the Orion space capsule, which at the moment is still missing key life support systems. <br /> <br />NASA may be enthusiastic about its latest move, but it’s unclear how it will meet program schedules, especially given its limited budget.
