SKIRMISHER

NASA says it’s going back to the moon — and this time, the guys are staying there.

NASA said it will establish an international base camp on one of the moon’s poles, permanently staffing it by 2024, four years after astronauts land there.

It is a sweeping departure from the Apollo moon missions of the 1960s and represents a new phase of space exploration after space shuttles are retired in 2010.

The estimated time frame for NASA’s lunar plans are:

2009 — a first test of one of the lunar spaceships.

2014 — the first manned test flight of the Orion crew exploration vehicle, but no moon landing.

2020 — the first flight of the four-astronaut crew to the moon.

But unlike your father’s “Apollo Program,” NASA wants you to know it’s a multinational moonfest and not at all about footprints-and-flag-planting sort of thing, but don’t expect Bangladesh or the Philippines to be joining it anytime soon.

via USA TODAY

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