AP Interview: NASA chief big on climate, hedges on moon date - The Associated Press

For landing astronauts on the moon, Nelson said the goal remains 2024, a deadline set by the Trump administration.

Nelson commended Elon Musk’s SpaceX for its achievements over the past year — flying astronauts to and from the International Space Station for NASA, and just this week successfully launching and landing a full-scale Starship prototype for the first time.

Starship is what NASA intends to use to land astronauts on the moon; that $3 billion contract, however, is being protested by the two losing companies.

Might the 78-year-old Nelson — who flew on space shuttle Columbia in 1986 — be interested in a commercial space ride.

Nelson said he did not seek the NASA administrator job, and had recommended three women.

It was while Nelson was a congressman that he rode on the shuttle — just two weeks before Challenger’s astronauts perished during liftoff.

Following the shuttles’ retirement in 2011, NASA had to rely on Russia to ferry its astronauts to and from the space station — until the first SpaceX crew flight last year.

“Despite the differences of the political governments, we’ve always had that space cooperation,” Nelson said