NEW YORK, September 4. /TASS/. The United States hopes that it will manage to send astronauts to Mars in early 2030, Secretary of Transportation and Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy said.

"We want to start sending payloads to the Moon to start building our base camp, and then from there again, we want to get in the early 30s to Mars," Duffy said on the air with Fox News television.

"The mission to the Moon is going to be critical to make sure we can sustain life. It's an eight plus month mission to Mars," the official said.

"We are going back to the Moon and we're going to go to Mars," he added.