WASHINGTON DC --The President wants to fast track NASA’s Artemis program, sending astronauts to the moon and Mars.
In a new budget proposal, President Trump included more than $25 billion dollars for NASA, a 12 percent jump.
A fraction of the funding would provide for human lunar landers as part of the Artemis program to get humans on the lunar surface by 2024.
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine called it one of the strongest budgets in the agency's history, adding "if the President's support for NASA wasn't clear before, it sure is now."
Meanwhile, NASA is recruiting the next generation of astronauts for the program and if you think you fit the bill, the agency says they are now accepting applications.
The agency's Astronaut Selection Program says a candidate must be a U.S. citizen with at least a master's degree in a STEM field.
Ph.D. candidates with at least two years in pursuit of a STEM doctorate may also apply, along with medical doctors and test pilots.
Candidates will have to pass a long-duration spaceflight physical.NASA will accept applications from March 2nd to the 31st.
This comes just weeks after NASA graduated its first class of Artemis astronauts, the 13 men and women who will fly missions to the moon and maybe even Mars.
Bridenstine says the space agency is committed to sending a man and the first woman to the moon by 2024.
The graduating class spent the last two years in intense training and were selected from a pool of 18,000 applicants.