And this still-busy-at-83, one-time spaceman has a lot to say. <\/p>\n
For one, the former three-term senator from Florida is adamant that humans are going to Mars. It\u2019s not a matter of if, just a matter of when, he told The Independent Sunday in an exclusive interview at the non-profit Washington West Film Festival in Reston, Virginia.<\/p>\n
But he\u2019s seeking a clearer vision of that mission to Mars from the world\u2019s richest man, Elon Musk, who provides the rockets that launch to the International Space Station, and which will ultimately send astronauts to the moon and Mars using his 403-foot-tall SpaceX Starship \u2014 assuming it stops exploding in test flights, the latest of which, on Monday went well<\/a>.<\/p>\n Musk has called the moon a \u201cdistraction\u201d<\/a> on the way to the Red Planet. But, Nelson says the billionaire X social media platform owner \u201chas contradicted himself.\u201d \u201cBecause he\u2019s said the opposite, also,\u201d the former astronaut said. <\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Former NASA Administrator Bill Nelson says that humanity cannot get to Mars without going to the moon and other critical science. But that science has been threatened by cuts from the Trump administration (Getty Images for Clinton Global)<\/p>\n Nelson says you can\u2019t have Mars without the moon. Scientists need the research from the first phases of the Artemis program to get us to Mars. <\/p>\n \u201cBut the fact that he has a contract to do this lunar lander \u2014 he can\u2019t land on Mars if he doesn\u2019t have a lander. And so, he\u2019s going to try to develop that lander and what he learns on a lunar lander will help him with the Mars lander,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n Crunching M&Ms from the LOOK Dine-in Cinemas following the 30th anniversary screening of Apollo 13 \u2014 naturally \u2014 Nelson said he gets along very well with Musk and his billionaire competitor and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos.<\/p>\n The future of space exploration is increasingly commercial, according to Nelson. That\u2019s especially true when the International Space Station comes down in 2030 after 32 years in space.<\/p>\n It will be cheaper for NASA to rely on the work funded by SpaceX, Blue Origin and other players, and NASA plans to lease space on a commercially-built station in the future.<\/p>\n \u201cYou’re getting the advantages of a different way of doing things that often does not take as much time if the government is directing the contractor what to do,\u201d he explained. <\/p>\n Of course, the bad comes with the good. Astronomers have voiced concerns about a dangerous situation building in low-Earth orbit as SpaceX, AST SpaceMobile and others launch more and bigger satellites which astronomers warn could block out the stars<\/a> and potential near-Earth threats.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n SpaceX’s Starship rocket launches from South Padre Island in Texas during its eleventh test flight on October 13, 2025. When the Starship is operational it will haul 60 Starlink satellites to orbit at a time (AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n Nelson says we\u2019ll have more groundbreaking telescopes launched that will solve that problem and that we can mitigate any risk. <\/p>\n However, at least one of those projects has been canceled under the Trump administration, which cut NASA\u2019s science operations in half, the Miami native said.<\/p>\n The revolutionary Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope<\/a> was lost in the budget slash, with human spaceflight prioritized above astronomy, climate and other science. <\/p>\n NASA has also felt the weight of recent layoffs, as have many in critical fields around the currently shut down federal government. And further cuts are expected <\/a>this week.<\/p>\n Nelson called the situation \u201ctragic,\u201d telling The Independent that we\u2019re working against ourselves.<\/p>\n \u201cI can point [to] two areas real quick in the federal government, other than the CDC, that it’s so counterproductive to cut. One is NASA, the other is NIH\u201d the Army captain said. \u201cI mean, we’re on the major breakthroughs in taking care of each other through our health. And they’re cutting that research. I mean, it’s just so counterproductive.\u201d<\/p>\n Nelson said he hopes that Congress will restore some of what has been lost at NASA and pointed out that the world has endured extreme times before. <\/p>\n \u201cWe’ll get through this,\u201d he said, as pop singer Meghan Trainor\u2019s \u201cNO\u201d blasted over the theater\u2019s speakers.<\/p>\n Much younger in appearance and vigor than his 83 years, Nelson, a soon-to-be two-time author, remains an optimist. During his tenure as NASA administrator, the Columbia Space Shuttle STS-61C payload specialist oversaw some awe-inspiring science.<\/p>\n The James Webb Space Telescope launched<\/a> in December 2021, providing the ability to peer through time back to the start of the universe. About a year later, NASA successfully conducted the first test of the Orion spacecraft that will take astronauts to lunar orbit on Boeing\u2019s Space Launch System rocket.<\/p>\n Now, he believes NASA can do it again with Artemis and the agency\u2019s Moon to Mars plan<\/a>. Although, an advisory committee recently warned of Starship delays<\/a> and the U.S. appears to be neck and neck with \u2013 or maybe already behind<\/a> \u2013 China.<\/p>\n Like the Webb Telescope, Artemis is also decades in the making. It\u2019s the progression of the Apollo program, a hallmark of early NASA that started first in 1962 and lasted through 1972.<\/p>\n The festival\u2019s screening of Apollo 13 served as a reminder of what can be accomplished at NASA, Jason Slattery, the film festival\u2019s Director of Sponsor Relations, explained. Mainly, it\u2019s served as a unifying force. <\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Then-President Richard Nixon meets the Apollo 13 astronauts in Honolulu, Hawaii, on April 23, 1970. In the front row, Fred Haise stands on the far left next to Jim Lovell, Nixon, and Jack Swigert (Getty Images)<\/p>\n \u201cAnd that\u2019s exactly what those astronauts displayed during all of these Apollo missions over the years,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n Nelson agreed, saying that humanity\u2019s nature of exploration will always be there.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are going to Mars,\u201d said Nelson. \u201cUnless we blow ourselves up as a planet.\u201d <\/p>\n Until then, you can find him at your local IHOP doing push-ups with a 24-year-old Army Ranger. <\/p>\n Nelson said he had previously chided former Stanford University tight end New Jersey Sen. Corey Booker for not doing his the right way in his office.<\/p>\n \u201dI said, \u2018Corey, you do 100 push-ups?\u2019 Let’s get down on the office rug and show me,\u2019\u201d he recalled. \u201cSo he gets down there and starts doing them like this \u2026 I said, \u2018Corey, that’s not a push-up. You got to go all the way down. That’s a military push up.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnyway, yesterday I got down \u2014 I could not go past 40,\u201d joked Nelson. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[90,416,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-199635","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-space","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Former](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-2174187289.jpeg\")
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