Vice President Mike Pence promised "we will put American boots on the face of Mars" during a tour of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday.
Pence was touring the Cape-Canaveral-based space center following President Donald Trump's announcement last week that he would be reviving the National Space Council, the Hill reports.
The council, designed to unify oversight for several federal space agencies, has lain dormant since 1993. Pence will now serve as its chairman, helping Trump pick board members.
At the Kennedy Space Center, Pence connected America's spacefaring past to the future he and the president envision.
"Here the Hubble Space Telescope, the New Horizons, and so many other technological wonders lifted off the Earth to give us a glimpse of our fellow planets, the distant stars, and the infinite galaxies that are a window into our very past," Pence said.
"And here from this bridge to space, our nation will return to the moon," he said, "and we will put American boots on the face of Mars."
