By Michael Wilner, Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON — Early in his first term, President Donald Trump held a modest ceremony directing NASA to return humans to the moon for the first time in 50 years. It was a goalpost set without a road map. Veterans of the space community reflected on the 2017 document , conspicuously silent on budgets and timelines, equivocating between excitement and concern.

Was Trump setting up a giveaway to special interests in the aerospace community? Or was he setting forth a real strategic vision for the coming decade, to secure American leadership in the heavens?

It was a return to a plan first proposed by President George W. Bush in 2004, then abandoned by President Barack Obama in 2010, asserting the moon as a vital part of American ambitions in space.

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