Donald Trump Likes Space, But Says Earth Should Be Given More Importance

Republican presidential hopeful and billionaire mogul, Donald Trump said he likes NASA, but he thinks that Earthly issues should come first before space. He believes that spending on space exploration should be reduced which will happen should he win the US presidential election in November.

During his New Hampshire rally, he made it clear that Earth should be given a greater priority. "In the old days, it [NASA] was great. Right now, we have bigger problems, you understand that," Trump said. "We have to fix our potholes. We don't exactly have a lot of money." He explained that as of the moment, NASA receives about one half of 1 percent of the total federal budget every year which amounts to almost $18 billion allotted to the space agency for fiscal year 2015, mashable.com reported.

In a written interview for Aerospace America, the billionaire mogul and republican frontrunner seemed to be cool about committing large amounts of the government's money to the space program. And when asked about his thoughts on the existing budget for NASA, Trump made it clear most part of it will depend on the state of the country's economy.

According to The Telegraph, the presidential candidate said that what the country is spending in NASA is appropriate for the kind of work the space agency is asked to do.  However, he also added saying, "We also have to balance our spending priorities based on our economic circumstances, and right now, those circumstances are quite challenging. Our first priority is to restore a strong economic base to this country. Then, we can have a discussion about spending." He was also mum about whether or not he would give plans to send astronauts to Mars a go.

Mr. Trump also mentioned that his administration's recommendation would highly depend on the country's economic state. "If we are growing with all of our people employed and our military readiness back to acceptable levels, then we can take a look at the timeline for sending more people into space."

The Obama administration has been looking to private partners to bolster its space program which has been dependent on the Russians to take astronauts up to the International Space Station. However the Russian service has been costly, with the US being charged around $60 million (£42 million) per person for a seat on Soyuz.