London, Nov. 9 (ANI): NASA is reportedly planning to send astronauts back to the Moon following Barack Obama's win in the US presidential elections.
Space policy expert John Logsdon, claimed that the plans were kept under wraps, in case Mitt Romney won the elections this week.
According to space.com, Logsdon claimed NASA intended to establish a manned outpost on the Moon with a view to visit an asteroid in 2025, the Independent reported.
"Nasa has been evolving its thinking, and its latest charts have inserted a new element of cislunar/lunar gateway/Earth-moon L2 sort of stuff into the plan," Longsdon, a retired professor at George Washington University, said.
"They've been holding off announcing that until after the election," he said, adding that Romney had promised to reassess and possibly revise the space agency's direction and budget.
According to Logsdon, the space agency is also likely to be able to achieve these goals within the 17.7 billion-dollar-budget that was outlined in the proposed 2013 federal budget.
"They're not talking about plans that imply significant budget increases," he said.
"It gives a more focused use for SLS and Orion before an asteroid mission," he added. (ANI)
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