In January 2004, President George W. Bush announced new elements of the national space policy by issuing the Vision for Space Exploration (VSE). The new policy set out goals for NASA, including that of exploring the “solar system and beyond” with human and robotic missions—specifically, to “extend human presence across the solar system, starting with a human return to the Moon by the year 2020.” In the year that followed, NASA created the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) as the primary agent for the development of the exploration program. NASA assigned ESMD the primary responsibility for the development of space technology to support the exploration program
