NASA Aims for Mars Landings in 2035 While Building Support for Lunar Gateway

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine is looking to land humans on Mars in the 2030s as he recruits partners of the International Space Station to help the agency land humans on the moon by 2024, according to his remarks at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC). 

“If we are accelerating the moon landing, we are accelerating the Mars landing,” Bridenstine said during a livestreamed panel discussion of space agency heads at IAC in Washington, D.C. “I suggest we can do it by 2035,” he added.

Bridenstine’s pledge is similar (with a later deadline) to promises he made in the spring. In April, in a hearing of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, he suggested NASA astronauts could walk on Mars by 2033. In that meeting and also in May, Bridenstine added that pushing sooner for the moon would make it possible to bring astronauts to Mars faster, which is…
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