History: NASA Archive Photography

On December 4, 2006, NASA announced it was planning a permanent moon base. The goal was to start building the moon base by 2020, and by 2024, have a fully functional base that would allow for crew rotations and in-situ resource utilization. However in 2009, the Augustine Committee found the program to be on a "unsustainable trajectory." In 2010, President Barack Obama halted existing plans, including the Moon base, and directed a generic focus on manned missions to asteroids and Mars, as well as extending support for the International Space Station.
On April 18, 2011, NASA awarded nearly $270 million to four companies to develop U.S. vehicles that could fly astronauts to the ISS as part of the CCDev 2 program.
In September 2011, NASA announced the start of the Space Launch System program to develop a human-rated heavy lift vehicle. The Space Launch System is intended to launch the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle and other elements towards the Moon, near-Earth asteroids, and one day Mars. The Orion MPCV is planned for an unmanned test launch on a Delta IV Heavy rocket around late 2013.