The final Space Shuttle mission is not the end of human spaceflight, according to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.
Bolden wrote a guest column Sunday in the Orlando Sentinel, addressing the future direction of NASA’s human spaceflight mission. Bolden said NASA is working on a crew capsule that can send astronauts to new destinations such as asteroids, with a target date of 2025.
A manned mission to Mars is planned for the 2030s, with NASA looking at options for the heavy-lift rockets needed to reach the new destinations.
“At NASA, we do big things — things that inspire all of humankind,†Bolden wrote. “We will continue to be the innovators of tomorrow. The next era of exploration begins today.â€
American astronauts will continue to live, work and conduct research in the International Space Station until 2020.
Click here to read the full column.
