NASA Pledges To Send First Woman to the Moon in 2024 The space agency's return to the moon will prepare it for a future mission to Mars, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said. NASA'S MISSION BACK TO the moon's surface in 2024 will have some notable differences from the last time Americans were there in 1972, including the presence of a female astronaut. "The first woman will be an American on the surface of the moon in five years," NASA Administrator Jim Birdenstine told a crowd at the Space Foundation's Space Symposium in Colorado on Tuesday. Vice President Mike Pence recently tasked the agency with moving up its timeline to go back to the lunar surface, from 2028 to 2024. "NASA is up to achieving it," Bridenstine said. The "architecture" of the plan hasn't changed, he said, but the timeline has. The acceleration will require the agency to move up some of the investments it planned to make in the elements of the mission. That will require more money. But why does NASA want to go back to the moon? Bridenstine said it will help prepare the agency to go to Mars in the 2030s. ASA also wants to use the resources of the moon's surface, including hundreds of millions of tons of hydrogen and oxygen, which can make rocket fuel. "We're going to utilize the resources of the moon," Bridenstine said. "We're going to retire risk, and then we're going to go on to Mars." THE SLEEPING QUARTERS FOR THE FEMALE ASTRONAUT WILL BE ABOVE A GLASS CEILING. VICE PRESIDENT PENCE WANTED TO GO ON THE TRIP, BUT AFTER THE ASTRONUTS DECIDED TO KNEEL DURING THE NATIONAL ANTHEM, VP PENCE CANCELLED. VICE PRESIDENT PENCE WANTED TO GO ON THE TRIP, BUT WAS NEEDED AT HOME TO BREAK A TIE VOTE ON TRUMP-CARE. VICE PRESIDENT PENCE WANTED TO GO ON THE TRIP, BUT SINCE HE WOULD HAVE TO EAT WITH A WOMAN OTHER THAN HIS WIFE HE CANCELLED. (In 2002, Mike Pence told the Hill that he never eats alone with a woman other than his wife and that he won't attend events featuring alcohol without her by his side, either.) DONALD TRUMP ISSUED AN EXECUTIVE ORDER FOR OFF SHORE DRILLING IN THE SEA OF TRANQUILITY.