January 2008
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On 14 January 2004, President George W. Bush issued a policy statement entitled A Renewed Spirit of Discovery in which he called upon NASA to begin to plan for a resumption of human missions to the Moon, as a precursor to a mission to Mars. As a first step, and beginning no later than 2008, NASA was instructed to “initiate a series of robotic missions to the Moon to prepare for and support future exploration activities”. In The Vision for Space Exploration, which the agency published on 11 February, the Goddard Space Flight Center was directed to establish a Robotic Lunar Exploration Program.