The head of the U.S. space agency believes its space shuttle programme and the International Space Station were mistakes, a newspaper reported Wednesday. "Had the decision been mine, we would not have built the space station we're building in the orbit we're building it in," USA Today quoted NASA chief Michael Griffin as saying. NASA lost its way in the 1970s when it gave up moon missions and developed the shuttle and space station, which can only orbit Earth, Griffin told USA Today. The U.S. space programme is now moving in the right direction as the nation again tries to put humans on the moon again by 2018, said Griffin, who took over NASA in April. Fourteen astronauts have died in shuttle accidents since the first flight in 1982. ---SP 2316 Local Time 2016 GMT
