The USA's future plans for space travel were outlined in the Vision for Space Exploration, stated by U.S. President George W. Bush on 14 January 2004. Throughout late 2004 and early 2005 Congress passed legislation showing their support for the Vision, including a $16.2 billion US Dollars NASA budget and a bill which explicitly endorses the project.

The highlight of the Vision is a return to the Moon with robotic missions by 2008 and crewed missions by 2020, including plans for a long-habitation moon base to be occupied by 2024. The base would have astronauts staying for six months at a time, similar to a typical stay on a space station in low earth orbit. The Moon base is seen as a long-term stepping stone for Mars missions.

The Vision for Space Exploration includes numerous goals and anticipated milestones, beginning as soon as 2008 and extending to 2024 and beyond. First are robotic missions to the Moon, planned for sometime between 2008 and 2010. In 2010, the Space Shuttles will be retired, and the United States will temporarily be without means of human space travel capability, dependent on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

The International Space Station is scheduled to be completed by 2010. In 2014 the new Orion spacecraft will be launched, capable of carrying four to six astronauts to space stations, but its primary purpose being to take them to the Moon. The Orion is based superficially on the Apollo Command Module, the first craft to engage in lunar space travel, but will feature a larger size and much more advanced technology. The climactic return to the Moon is scheduled for 2020, with the construction of a base by 2024. Around this point, NASA thinks it might have the technologies and experience necessary to make the journey to Mars, although this aspect of the Vision is the most speculative and long-term. We have only begun to research the large challenges awaiting long-distance space travel to another planet.

It is obvious why the primary focus of the new US space travel vision is the Moon: it is the closest celestial body, with many of the basic resources necessary to sustain life and an economy, not to mention an excellent view. Most people believe that humanity will eventually settle the Moon, and that the present-day space program is the first baby steps in that direction. With luck and the continued acceleration of progress in the enabling technologies, space travel to the Moon might become routine by 2050 or even before. Space travel to planets beyond, particularly Mars, could follow soon thereafter.