President Barack Obama has proposed a daunting mission for NASA – reaching astronauts to an asteroid by 2025! According to space experts, a voyage to an asteroid, a huge speeding rock, would not only entail even greater dangers than the Moon mission, and would involve the safety of the Earth.

Outlining the new path for NASA, the President said during his Thursday visit to the Kennedy Space Center: “By 2025, we expect new spacecraft designed for long journeys to allow us to begin the first-ever crewed missions beyond the moon into deep space. We'll start by sending astronauts to an asteroid for the first time in history.”

Sending astronauts to an asteroid would not only involve crucial training for the ultimate Mars mission, but will also help unlock the hitherto-unknown secrets of the creation of the solar system. It might also provide mankind with the requisite expertise for saving the Earth from a collision with a killer asteroid.

About Obama’s asteroid goal, NASA chief Charles Bolden told reporters late Thursday that the mission is probably the “hardest” task ahead for the space agency, given the fact that “the asteroid is not coming on a schedule.” Bolden further added that upon the final selection of a particular asteroid, the window for a spaceship launch towards it will be much less forbearing than the windows for space shuttles sent to the International Space Station.