NASA manager casts doubt on 2024 moon landing by astronauts

The Latest: Pence marks Apollo 11 anniversary at launch site

In this July 20, 1969 photo made available by NASA, astronaut Buzz Aldrin, lunar module pilot, walks on the surface of the moon during the Apollo 11 extravehicular activity. (Neil Armstrong/NASA via AP)

This March 30, 1969 photo made available by NASA shows the crew of the Apollo 11, from left, Neil Armstrong, commander; Michael Collins, module pilot; Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin, lunar module pilot. Apollo 11 was the first manned mission to the surface of the moon. (NASA via AP)

In this photo provided by NASA, the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission is celebrated in a 17-minute show, "Apollo 50: Go for the Moon" which combined full-motion projection-mapping artwork on the Washington Monument and archival footage to recreate the launch of Apollo 11 and tell the story of the first moon landing, Friday, July 19, 2019, in Washington. (NASA/Bill Ingalls via AP)

In this July 16, 1969 photo made available by NASA, the 363-feet Saturn V rocket carrying the Apollo 11 crew, launches from Pad A, Launch Complex 39, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (NASA via AP)

El presidente Donald Trump, acompa�ado por los astronautas Michael Collins, izquierda, y Buzz Aldrin, derecha, del Apolo 11, as� como por el vicepresidente Mike Pence y la primera dama Melania Trump, escucha durante una reuni�n para conmemorar el 50mo aniversario del alunizaje del Apolo 11, en la Oficina Oval de la Casa Blanca, el viernes 19 de julio de 2019, en Washington. (AP Foto/Alex Brandon)

Visitors look at the NASA Apollo 11 command module Columbia, the centerpiece of Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission exhibit at the Museum of Flight, Friday, July 19, 2019, in Seattle. The module functioned as a mother ship, carrying the crew of three astronauts and the second Apollo spacecraft, the lunar module, to orbit around the moon, and brought the astronauts back to Earth. The exhibit commemorates the historic landing by American astronauts on the moon 50 years earlier, on July 20, 1969. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

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By Glenn Schroeder

Cape Canaveral, FLA — A top NASA manager cast doubt Wednesday on the space agency’s ability to land astronauts on the moon by 2024.

Kenneth Bowersox, acting associate administrator for human exploration and operations, told a Congressional subcommittee that NASA is doing its best to meet the White House-imposed deadline.

But he noted: “I wouldn’t bet my oldest child’s upcoming birthday present or anything like that.”

Bowersox — a former space shuttle and space station commander — said it’s good for NASA to have “that aggressive goal.”

Many things need to come together, like funding and technical challenges, he said, for 2024 to stand a chance.

"What’s important is that we launch when we’re ready, that we have a successful mission when it launches, and I’m not going to sit here and tell you that just arbitrarily we’re going to make it,” he said in response to questioning by U.S. Rep. Bill Posey, R-FLorida.

“There’s a lot of risk in making the date, but we want to try to do it.”

The Trump administration urged NASA in March to accelerate its latest moon-landing plans by four years to 2024.

The request came a few months ahead of the 50th anniversary of the first lunar footsteps by Apollo 11′s Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.