Bridenstine all smiles as Pence vows the U.S. will return to the moon

Vice President Mike Pence, left, is introduced by NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine during a visit to NASA’s Johnson Space Center Thursday, Aug. 23, 2018, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Former Oklahoma Congressman Jim Bridenstine was all smiles on Thursday as he hosted U.S. Vice President Mike Pence. Why wouldn’t he be?

After all, now the head of NASA, Bridenstine had made returning man to the moon one of his goals and projects as he was considered to be the leader of the U.S. space agency.  And it’s a promise and vow that Vice President Pence delivered to him as they toured NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

“While our sights are once again set on our lunar neighbor, this time we’re not content with just leaving behind footprints—or even to leave at all,” Pence told NASA employees. “The time has come, we really believe, for the United States of America to take what we have learned over these so many decades, put ingenuity and creativity to work and establish a permanent presence around and on the moon.”

It’s what Bridenstine, the former U.S. Representative from Tulsa had long sought and wanted to hear. On May 8, in a speech at NASA offices in Washington, Bridenstine vowed, “we are going to the moon.”

Here’s how CBS news reported the speech.