Although details continue to change, the transition team reviewing NASA and its activities has begun drafting possible executive orders for changes to space policy under the Trump Administration.
Sources familiar with the five-person team, who have spent the past six weeks evaluating the space agency and its exploration plans, were careful to note that such teams are advisory in nature. They do not formally set policy nor is their work always indicative of the direction in which an incoming presidential administration will move.
However, in trying to set clear goals for NASA and civilian space policy, the ideas under consideration reflect the Trump administration’s desire to make “big changes” at NASA, both in terms of increasing the effectiveness and speed of their programs.
It’s not the same as always
The transition team has been dealing with an agency that has a glut of field centers (ten spread across the United States, as well as a formal headquarters in Washington, D.C.) and large, slow-moving programs that cost a lot of money and have ha slow to give results.
“This won’t be business as usual,” said a person familiar with the group’s meetings. The mindset that drives your deliberations is focused on results and speed.
Donald Trump will be sworn in as president for his second term in just under a month, on January 20. That day he is expected to sign a series of executive orders on issues he campaigned on. This could include space policy, but that will most likely wait until later in his presidency.
A source said the space transition team has been working off ideas that Trump has talked about publicly, including his interest in Mars. For example, during a campaign speech this fall, Trump referenced SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who played an important role during the campaign both in terms of time and money, and his desire to colonize Mars.
“We are leading in space over Russia and China… It’s my plan, I’ll talk to Elon,” Trump said in September. “Elon launches those rockets because we want to get to Mars before the end of my term and we also want to have great military protection in space.”
Ideas under consideration
The transition team has been discussing possible elements of an executive order or other policy directives. They include:
- Setting the goal of sending humans to the Moon and Mars, by 2028
- Cancel expensive Space Launch System rocket and possibly Orion spacecraft
- Consolidation of the Goddard Space Flight Center and the Ames Research Center at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama
- Maintain a small administrative presence in Washington, DC, but move headquarters to a field center
- Quickly redesign the Artemis lunar program to make it more efficient