Trump administration announces to put Americans back on moon by 2024

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, speaking on behalf of the Trump administration, announced on Tuesday an accelerated goal of putting Americans back on the moon within five years "by any means necessary," a challenge accepted by NASA's top official.

Pence, chairing a meeting of the administration's National Space Council in Huntsville, Alabama, declared, "We're in a space race today, just as we were in the 1960s."

NASA had previously been aiming to return astronauts to the lunar surface by the year 2028.