The National Aeronautics and Space Administration was preparing to take Americans back to the Moon and on to Mars—until President Obama took office.

Obama crippled NASA’s efforts to send astronauts beyond low Earth orbit without international assistance and needed the help of allies to make it to Mars.

The former president redirected America’s space agency from pioneering the future in space exploration and scientific discovery to advancing his so-called social justice agenda — push radical global warming extremism and Muslim outreach.

Obama directed NASA administrator Charles Bolden to make Muslim outreach a top priority for the agency.

It is very sad to see what @BarackObama has done with NASA. He has gutted the program and made us dependent on the Russians. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 27, 2012

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President Trump is in the process of restoring America’s space exploration program to its former glory.

The president announced Monday that he is directing the Pentagon to establish the “Space Force” as a sixth branch to join the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard dedicated to protecting American interests in outer space.

“When it comes to defending America, it is not enough to merely have an American presence in space. We must have American dominance in space,” the president declared in the White House East Room in a meeting of the National Space Council. “Very importantly, I’m hereby directing the Department of Defense and Pentagon to immediately begin the process necessary to establish the Space Force as the sixth branch of the armed forces.”

“We are going to have the Air Force and we are going to have the Space Force: separate but equal, it is going to be something so important,” he said.

The initiative, Trump explained, would protect American interests in space through monitoring commercial traffic and debris and would be “great not only in terms of jobs and everything else, it’s great for the psyche of our country.”

Trump tasked Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, with the undertaking of creating the additional branch of the military.

“General Dunford, if you would carry that assignment out, I would be very greatly honored,” Mr. Trump said from the podium, after searching for him in the crowd.

“We got it,” the General replied.