Sets Journey As Long-Range Goal For The Space Force

Aero-News April 1 Special Edition

President Donald Trump has announced that he wants U.S. astronauts to be the first to travel to Alpha Centauri, and has made the journey a long-range goal for the newly-established "Space Force".

"Alpha Centauri, it's close, you know, and planets have already been discovered there. I think we should look beyond our solar system and set big goals, big goals," Trump said during a ceremony in which he signed an executive order mandating the effort. "Nobody does space better that we do. We're the best at space. So let's really reach for the stars."

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine welcomed Trump's announcement. "Finally, a President who gets it," Bridenstine said. "We're looking forward to working with the Department of Defense on visiting our nearest neighbor in the cosmos."

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi surprisingly welcomed the announcement. "We'd like to see President Trump as the mission commander. I think he needs to make the trip personally ... alone if possible."

SpaceX founder Elon Musk said travel beyond the solar system should be the purview of private companies. "We've got spacecraft on the drawing board ... a Really Big Freaking Rocket ...  that could reach Alpha Centauri, and I think we can launch such an effort by 2022," Musk said. "Never underestimate a large group of determined and enthusiastic Gen Xers and Millennials who will work days on end without sleep subsisting on Red Bull and quinoa salads. All I have to say is 'Alpha Centauri' and they get these dreamy looks and crack open another energy drink. We're ready."

ESA Director General Johann-Dietrich Wörner said that any such effort should be multinational. "We want to be in on this," Wörner said. "We can't let any alien beings we encounter think America is what Earth is all about. Europe needs to be represented."

Trump did not give a timeline for launching the trip to Alpha Centauri. "We're going to look at this and I know we've got really good people working on it, really good people, I can tell you that. Take it to the bank, we're going to Alpha Centauri."

FMI: www.whitehouse.gov