President Donald Trump has made a bold promise to expand America’s territory to a place that is truly out of the world.
Speaking during his inauguration on Monday, Trump promised to launch American astronauts to Mars.’
‘We will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars’ and ‘plant the stars and stripes on the planet Mars,’ he said, adding that ‘ambition is the lifeblood of a great nation.’
Elon Musk stood in the crowd and immediately gave a thumbs up after hearing there would be an American flag standing on the Martian planet.
Musk, who has become friends with the president along the campaign trail, has long pushed for NASA to send humans to the Red Planet and shelve its efforts to return to the moon.
The billionaire wrote on X this month that ‘we’re going straight to Mars. The moon is a distraction.’
Trump’s vow came as he called on America to consider itself as a growing nation.
‘One that increases our wealth, expands our territory, builds our cities, raises our expectations and carries our flag into new and beautiful horizons,’ he said.
President Donald Trump has made a bold promise to expand America’s territory to a place that is truly out of the world
Trump officially became the 47th President of the US shortly after 12pm ET.
His enthusiasm for sending astronauts to Mars was shared by some as a poll shows about three in US adults said that sending astronauts to Mars was ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ important, about one-third said it was ‘moderately’ important, and about 4 in 10 said it was ‘not too’ or ‘not at all’ important.
But the US Congress has already expressed concerns about Musk’s ambitions to bypass the moon and go to Mars.
The plan means axing the $93 billion Artemis program.
Mark Kelly, former astronaut and Arizona state representative, said last week: ‘We’ve already invested a lot of resources in Artemis, and NASA needs to complete this mission.’
He was joined by Republican Brian Babin, chairman of the House Space Committee, who emphasized: ‘To bypass the moon would be a mistake.’
Trump, however, did not say Artemis would be canceled during his inauguration speech, but he also did not mention America’s return to the moon.
NASA’s Artemis has been hit by several delays, which the agency blames on technical issues.
Elon Musk stood in the crowd and immediately gave a thumbs up after hearing there would be an American flag standing on the Martian planet
NASA administrator Bill Nelson announced in December that the Artemis moon missions would be delayed due to safety concerns about the re-entry vehicle.
In 2022, the Artemis I mission completed an uncrewed test of the capsule, and found that the heat shield which protects the craft on re-entry had become unexpectedly charred.
But the unexpected event pushed Artemis II, which would have put a group of astronauts in orbit around the moon, from September 2025 until no earlier than April 2026.
Likewise, the Artemis III moon landing has now been pushed back from 2026 until mid-2027 at the very earliest.
But Musk has been a support of going to Mars for years, saying he would use SpaceX’s Starship rocket to make the mission happen.
In September, the billionaire said SpaceX was eyeing 2026 to to launch five uncrewed Starship rockets to Mars.
And if the missions are a success, Musk would establish a colony on the Red Planet by 2050.
