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SPACE DAILY
US astronauts could return to the moon as early as 2013 if Congress backs an ambitious new space plan that President Bush is expected to unveil next week according to a UPI report late Thursday night.
The UPI report says America will look at using Russian Soyuz and European Ariane rockets for human and cargo transport both to support the International Space Station and in the lead up for a return to the moon.
The new space plan comes in the wake of the Shuttle Columbia disaster that saw seven astronauts killed when their three billion dollar space shuttle lost control after a burn through in the left wing on reentry before exploding over Texas on January 31, 2003.
Since then the US has been engaged in a difficult reassessment of the entire American human space program that has been stuck in Low Earth Orbit since the last lunar explorers returned to Earth aboard Apollo 17 December 19, 1972.
Having spent hundreds of billions of dollars developing, building and maintaining the space shuttle fleet, that over time has numbered six vehicles, many are asking just what has been achieved other than a very expensive space station designed for a crew of seven which is currently in caretaker mode with just two astronauts onboard.
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