Agreed. It’s like they are just making stuff up now because whenever the Administration orders something, nothing ever happens. They should just promise everyone a pony.
I think what Pence meant to say was we would return to the moon in 2024, but as far as I know that will likely be an orbit around the moon, landings to come later.
At a recent conference, NASA presented their plan for Gateway. That is the purpose/justification for Orion now, as LEO launches to ISS are slated for the commercial vehicle now (Mr Musk). Gateway will be the US lunar orbiting space station, to be manned about 1 or 2 months out of a year, and to be on autopilot the remaining time between crews. Presumably those missions will include lunar landers and crews will make descents to the surface with the Gateway close overhead for support. I don’t work on this program so that’s about all I know about it.
When I was younger I would be all over this stuff, as being an astronaut was one of my ambitions. I have fond memories of working payloads for some of the shuttle missions. Getting to know the astronauts was way more interesting to me than getting to know Hollywood celebrities or politicians. Now I look at the years of lethargy in the space program and I am satisfied to be involved with the programs I work on that have enthusiastic customer support other than NASA.