ABSTRACT
On May 13, 2019, President Trump announced an amendment to his budget request that would add $1.6 billion to the $19.9 billion NASA budget already submitted for that fiscal year. The proposal diverted money from other sources within the budget to support NASA's return to the Moon by 2024. In the immediate post-Apollo years, there was little momentum carried forward from lunar exploration. President Nixon approved the development of the space shuttle in 1972, but NASA's budget fell steeply as a proportion of the total federal budget over the next 10 years. Despite this, NASA had ambitious aims: the establishment of a lunar base in the 1970s and a mission to Mars in 1981. After the Nixon presidency ended in disgrace, Gerald Ford and then Jimmy Carter followed without adding much impetus to space matters, at least as far as manned exploration was concerned. On the other hand, NASA enjoyed success with robotic missions.
