Frankly I I have been pushing NASA to revamp its vision. The shuttle did extraordinary work in low orbit: experiments international space station moving cargo it was an extraordinary accomplishment and we're very proud of the work that is. But now what we need is Technological breakthrough we are still using the same models for space travel that we used with the Apollo program 3040 years ago and so we've said is rather than keep on doing the same thing let's invest in basic research around the technologies that can get his places faster will allow human spaceflight to last longer and what is your seeing now is NASA I think redefining its mission we've set a goal to let's ultimately get to Mars a good pit stop disaster right we haven't actually identified the asteroid getting his people are wondering what the point is let's start stretching the boundaries sort of doing the same thing over and over but rather that start thinking about what the next horizon with the next frontier out there and learn order to do that ranks of the recent technological breakthroughs that we don't have yet, we can do is for some of the slower but stuff some more routine space travel as you know will is not routine but it could become more routine overtime let's allow the private sector to get in so that they can for example send these low Earth orbit vehicles into space we may be able to achieve a point in time where those of you who are just planning on space where you can buy a ticket and private characters can potentially take you up there while the government focuses on the big breakthroughs that require much more larger investment involve much greater risk
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"Where does America stand in space exploration?" tweeted 'Ron' at the President's "Twitter Town Hall" of July 6th 2011. And Mr. Obama responded at length; touching on Mars, asteroids, private commercial crew and resupply in Low Earth Orbit.
Credit: whitehouse.gov