How NASA might change under Donald Trump
Although the details are still in flux, the transition team is looking into it NASA and its operations have begun drafting potential executive orders aimed at changing space policy under the Trump Administration.
Sources familiar with the five people on the team, who have spent the past six weeks assessing the space agency and its exploration plans, were careful to note that such groups are advisory in nature. . They do not officially set policy, and their work does not always represent the direction the incoming presidential administration will take.
However, in trying to set clear goals for NASA and civil space policy, the ideas being considered reflect the Trump administration’s desire for “big changes” at NASA, both in terms of aspect of enhancing the efficiency and speed of the agency’s programs.
Not business as usual
The transition team is grappling with an agency with too many field centers — 10 spread across the United States as well as a formal headquarters in Washington, D.C. — and large, slow-moving, focused programs. It costs a lot of money and results are slow.
“This will not be business as usual,” said a person familiar with the group’s meetings. The mindset driving their discussions is focused on results and speed.
Donald Trump will be inaugurated for a second term as president in just under a month, on January 20. On that day, he is expected to sign several executive orders on issues he has campaigned on. run for election. This could include space policy, but that will likely have to wait until later in his presidency.
A source said the space transition team is studying ideas that Trump has talked about publicly, including his interest in Mars. For example, in his campaign speech this fall, Trump mentioned SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who played a key role in the campaign both in terms of time and money as well as his desire to settle on Mars.
“We’re leading in space over Russia and China… That’s my plan, I’ll talk to Elon,” Trump said in September. “Elon dispatched those rocket ships because we wanted to get to Mars before the end of my term and we also wanted to have strong military protection in space.”
The idea is under consideration
The transition team is discussing possible elements of an executive order or other policy directives. These include:
- Set a goal of sending humans to the Moon and Mars by 2028
- Cancel the costly Space Launch System rocket and possibly the Orion spacecraft
- Consolidation of the Goddard Space Flight Center and Ames Research Center at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama
- Maintain a small management presence in Washington, DC, but otherwise move headquarters to a field center
- Quickly redesign the Artemis lunar program to make it more effective
