Former President Donald Trump spent Sunday evening griping on his Twitter knockoff app Truth Social about a variety of topics that appear to be eating away at his psyche following a weekend full of potentially devastating personal legal developments.
Donald Trump claims NASA's virtually 'dead' space program was revamped by his administration | RawStory.TVDonald Trump claims NASA's virtually 'dead' space program was revamped by his administration | RawStory.TV
Trump's third post, which came at 7:43 p.m., contained boastful praise and scorn toward the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which on Monday will test launch its new lunar rocket, weather permitting. That program began under Trump, who incorrectly claimed that American space exploration was "dead" until he took office:
The first step in the return to the moon, tomorrow’s Artemis Launch, was proudly a signature policy of the Trump Administration, where we totally revamped NASA and our virtually 'dead' space program. I am sure that the Fake News will explain to all the great job that we did!
NASA administrator Bill Nelson has said Donald Trump's plan to put humans on the moon by 2024 via the Artemis program was unrealistic. "The target is 2025," he told Newsweek. "2024 was set by the Trump administration and that was never a realistic goal."
Fuel leaks have forced NASA to scrub the launch of its new moon rocket on a no-crew test flight. The next launch attempt will not take place until Friday at the earliest.
The 322-foot Space Launch System rocket was set to lift off Monday morning with three test dummies aboard on its first flight, a mission to propel a capsule into orbit around the moon.
The uncrewed mission, known as Artemis I, will see Orion circle the moon for several days as mission controllers test its capabilities before it speeds back to Earth at around 24,500 miles per hour, putting its heat shield through its paces.
Once the flight does take place, it will be a big step forward in America’s quest to put astronauts back on the moon for the first time since the end of the Apollo program 50 years ago. NASA hopes to send four astronauts around the moon in 2024 and land humans there as early as 2025.
