First woman to land on moon will be American: US Vice President Mike Pence
Washington, May 7: The United States is planning another space mission to the moon, Vice President Mike Pence said Monday asserting that the first woman to land on Earth's natural satellite will be an American.
"At President (Donald) Trump's direction, the United States will return to the moon within the next five years, and the first woman and the next man on the moon will be Americans," Pence said, in his address to the Satellite 2019 Conference here.
The Trump administration is incredibly proud that before the year ends, we will once again launch American astronauts on American rockets from American soil into the vast expanse of space, he said.
To fully unlock the mysteries of space, President Donald Trump recognises the US has to look beyond the halls of the government, beyond NASA, for input and guidance.
"That's why we assembled this Users' Advisories Group in the National Space Council, which, I'm proud to say has brought together some of the brightest minds and biggest talents in the country to help accelerate innovation across the space enterprise," he said.
More than 15,000 scientists and industry representatives from 105 countries, including India, are attending the four-day mega event beginning May 6 in Washington DC.
It is touted to be the largest commercial satellite industry event. It has featured headline keynote appearances from Amazon and Blue Origin founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk, One Web founder Greg Wyler, among many other.
Noting that other nations are joining the space race, Pence said while their capabilities increase, the truth of the matter is that there's no guarantee nations around the world share same values, ideals, or the US commitment to freedom and the rule of law and peace.
"And that's what makes our leadership in space so important," he said.
"The truth is, nations from Russia and China to North Korea and Iran have pursued weapons to jam, blind, and disable our navigation and communications satellites via electronic attacks from the ground," Pence said.
"Recently, we've even seen nations working on bringing new weapons of war into space itself. From anti-satellite weapons and airborne lasers, to highly threatening, on-orbit activities and evasive hypersonic missiles, our competitors and our adversaries have been aggressively developing and deploying technologies that put our technology and put our prosperity and our security at risk," said the vice president.
"Today, we recognise space a war-fighting domain, just like the land [and] air and sea," Pence quoted Trump as saying. And America is going to be as dominant for its security in space, as it is here on Earth, he asserted.
"To meet the emerging threats, President Trump has taken decisive action to strengthen American power.
"From the first days of this administration, we've been rebuilding our military, restoring the arsenal of democracy. And last year, President Trump signed the largest investment in our national defense since the days of Ronald Reagan, including renewed resources to enhance the resilience of our space defense systems," he said.
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Ex-minister Ramanath Rai hits out at BJP leader Ashoka for ‘irresponsible’ comments on KC Venugopal
Mangaluru: Congress leader and former minister B Ramanath Rai slammed BJP leader R Ashoka for calling AICC General Secretary KC Venugopal an agent of the party high command, and asked if the general secretary and other office-bearers in the BJP were commission agents too.
Rai, who addressed a press meet at the Congress office in the city on Friday, expressed fury over the recent comments of the BJP leader that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was presenting himself in a shameless manner in public life. Ashoka, who is also Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, had said that the Congress government had ‘broken every previous record on corruption-related controversies’.
“Ashoka has spoken with sheer ignorance and displays his lack of maturity, as he often does while facing the media. KC Venugopal has been working at organization of the party and it is unbecoming of Ashoka to criticize Venugopal as he did,” Rai told reporters.
“Being in a responsible position, how acceptable is it for Ashoka to pass disrespectful, random comments about another leader who also holds a responsible position? If KC Venugopal is indeed an agent of the party high command, what should we consider BJP leaders to be? Are they brokers?” he asked
Commenting on Ashoka’s allegations of corruption in the Congress government in Karnataka, Rai pointed out, “The KSRTC land was sold to private parties when he (Ashoka) was transport minister. We can find several such cases across the state, which need to be probed.”
The former minister, however, refused to comment on the incident that occurred at Mangaluru airport during CM Siddaramaiah’s visit to the city recently.
Former mayors Ashraf and Shashidhar Hegde, Congress activists Vishwas Kumar Das, Subhodaya Alva, Shabeer, Baby Kundar, Padmanabha, Nazeer Bajal and Prem were present.
