Thirty-five years after the world watched three Americans leave Earth on a mission to be the first to land on the moon, the United States is plotting a return to the lunar landscape. But while the destination is the same, the motives have changed. Then the goal was to prove to a divided world simply that it could be done and done best by a free society. Now the driv-ing motivation is to demonstrate the technologies and hone the skills needed to venture beyond Earth's own backyard. U.S. President George W. Bush, in dropping the exploration gauntlet during his speech at NASA headquarters in January, said the United States would return to the moon by 2020 "as a launching point for missions beyond." Beginning no later than 2008, Bush said, the United States would begin launching robotic missions to the moon to prepare the way for extended human lunar expeditions.
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