Our nation is busy preparing for an exciting
journey to Mars.
To live on another planet independent of Earth,
we need to prove the systems that will take
us there.
That's why we are building the world's most
powerful rocket the Space Launch System
and the infrastructure to launch it.
And we're testing Orion, the spacecraft designed
to take humans farther than we've ever gone before.
It won't be an easy journey.
That's why scientists on Earth and astronauts
in space are trying to find answers
to the challenges of long-duration spaceflight.
Cutting-edge research on the International
Space Station is on the verge of a major boost
that will double the time to conduct science
by adding an additional crew member.
Riding on commercial crew spacecraft assembled
at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida
from parts made all over America,
astronauts will leave Earth for months at
a time to conduct that critical research
on the orbiting laboratory.
The Red Planet is a destination for future
crews, many of whom are still in school,
who may be taking their first flying lesson
today or starting their first scientific investigation.
With the science under way today and coming
up with the help of commercial transportation systems,
those crews will accomplish a voyage of discovery
unlike any other in human history.
