Trump asks NASA to explore putting crew on rocket's debut flight

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - The Trump administration has directed NASA to study whether it is feasible to fly astronauts on the debut flight of the agency’s heavy-lift rocket, a mission currently planned to be unmanned and targeted to launch in late 2018, officials said on Friday. The study marks President Donald Trump's first step in shaping a vision for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Under former President Barack Obama, the U.S. space agency was working on the heavy-lift Space Launch System rocket and Orion deep-space capsule with the aim of sending astronauts to rendezvous with an asteroid in the mid-2020s, followed by a human expedition to Mars in the 2030s.