Vice President Pence will pay a visit to the NASA Johnston Space Center in Houston, Texas, today to discuss the future of space exploration.
Mr Pence is expected to focus his visit on NASA’s immediate goal of reaching the Moon as a stepping stone to a manned Mars mission.
The visit will be broadcast live online today starting 6.45pm BST (12.45pm CDT or 1.45pm EDT) from the Teague Auditorium at Johnson.
NASA said in a statement: “Vice President Mike Pence, with NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, will visit NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston Thursday, August 23, to discuss the future of human space exploration and the agency’s plans to return to the Moon as a forerunner to future human missions to Mars.”
How to watch the NASA announcement live stream:
You can watch the Vice President’s NASA announcement right here on Express.co.uk, courtesy of NASA TV.
NASA TV is the US space agency’s around-the-clock educational broadcasting available to stream online on YouTube and NASA’s website.
The embedded live stream below will kick off at 6.45pm UK time or 12.45pm Central Daylight Time (1.45pm Eastern Central Time).
You can also watch the live stream at NASA Live – the space agency’s dedicated live streaming service.
What will Mike Pence announce at NASA today?
Mr Pence’s NASA announcement is expected to fall in line with President Donald Trump’s Space Policy Directive presented in December 2017.
The document signed at the White House last year re-calibrated NASA’s focus from sending humans to Mars to returning to the Moon in the near future.
The presidential policy called for NASA to “lead an innovative and sustainable program of exploration with commercial and international partners to enable human expansion across the solar system and to bring back to Earth new knowledge and opportunities”.
The policy was initially drafted by the new National Space Council, chaired by Mr Pence, after a meeting in October last year.
The goal is to re-establish US dominance on the Moon as well as send the first humans to land on an asteroid.
Mr Pence said last year: “Under President Trump’s leadership, America will lead in space once again on all fronts.
“As the President has said, space is the ‘next great American frontier’ and it is our duty and our destiny to settle that frontier with American leadership, courage, and values.
“The signing of this new directive is yet another promise kept by President Trump.”
A long-term goal of the Space Directive is to make the Moon a launch vehicle towards Martian exploration.
Today’s announcement comes after Mr Pence revealed the administration’s plan to establish a new branch of the US military – the Space Force.
This week President Trump signed off a £557.5 billion ($717 billion) defence budget, touring the importance of spearheading the drive for dominance is space.
President Trump said: “In order to maintain America’s military supremacy, we must always be on the cutting edge.
“That is why we are also proudly reasserting America’s legacy of leadership in space.”