NASA May Accelerate Mars Mission Timeline Following Trump Budget Proposal

NASA is considering launching missions to Mars as early as next year in an effort to expedite its plan to land astronauts on the Red Planet. The surprise shift of focus comes less than a week after the U.S. administration released its proposed budget for the agency, which emphasizes the national goal of landing a human on Mars. The space agency is exploring the possibility of launching multiple missions to Mars in the very near future to accelerate its timeline for a human mission, Politico reported. “We are evaluating every opportunity, including launch windows in 2026 and 2028, to test technologies that will land humans on Mars,” NASA spokesperson Bethany Stevens is quoted in Politico as saying. The exact details of these missions, such as the rocket and payloads involved, were not disclosed. Last Friday, President Donald Trump’s administration released a proposed budget for NASA’s fiscal year 2026, which highlighted the “objectives of returning to the Moon before China and putting ... Read full article.