The United States plans to land the next man and first woman on the Moon by 2024, but doesn’t plan to do it alone. Executive Secretary of the National Space Council Scott Pace said that the new program, Artemis, takes a different approach from past missions:
“The Apollo Program was all about what we could do by ourselves, how we could demonstrate the singular capacity of the United States. What we're doing with the return to the moon is we want to do it with commercial and international partners. Because today, leadership is about getting others to come with you, not merely demonstrating what you can do by yourself.”
The European Union, Japan, Canada and Russia are all critical partners aboard the International Space Station:
“We’re looking at building on that partnership experience and developing a station in orbit around the moon that will be in some ways an extension of the International Space Station. But then we're going to look at - How do we go down to the surface? And we're looking for contributions from each of our partners in different ways. The Europeans today build what we call a service module, which can go with one of our capsules to fly out there. Europe and Japan are talking about building a habitation module that is a place to live aboard a gateway around the moon. Japan is talking about a rover that is a pressurized car, if you will, to go to the lunar surface, to roam and do science and actually be a habitat. So each of the partners is looking for how they can contribute something meaningful in a way that will also earn them a seat to travel to the Moon with us.”
Australia, which has a new space agency has also committed to supporting the lunar program and a future mission to Mars.
“The United States of America,” said Vice President Mike Pence, “Will always be willing to work closely with like-minded, freedom-loving nations, as we lead mankind into the final frontier.”
