Although SpaceX founder Elon Musk is known for his outspoken and controversial comments on his social media site X, he has been relatively reserved when it comes to US space policy in recent years.
For example, he rarely criticized NASA or its overall goal of returning humans to the moon under the Artemis program. Rather, Musk, who has long preferred Mars as a human destination, has more or less been a team player when it comes to the space agency’s plans to focus on the Moon.
This makes sense from a financial standpoint, as SpaceX has billions of dollars in contracts to not only build a human landing system under the Artemis program, but also to provide food, cargo and other logistics services for its planned Lunar Gateway in orbit around the moon.
Privately, however, Musk has been critical of NASA’s plans, suggesting that the Artemis program is moving too slowly and is too reliant on contractors who seek cost-effective government contracts and are less interested in achieving results.
Don’t be still about politics anymore
Over the past 10 days, Musk has begun to share some of these private thoughts publicly. On Christmas e.g. Musk wrote on X“The Artemis architecture is extremely inefficient because it is a job-maximizing program, not an output-maximizing program. Something completely new is needed.”
Then, on Thursday evening, added this: “No, we’re going straight to Mars. The moon distracts us.”
It would be one thing if Musk simply expressed his opinion as a private citizen. However, since Musk played a significant role in electing Donald Trump as the next president of the United States last year, he has taken on an crucial advisory role to the recent administration. He was also partially responsible for the expected nomination of private astronaut Jared Isaacman as NASA’s next administrator. While Musk doesn’t lead U.S. space policy, he certainly has a significant influence on what happens.
What does this mean for Artemis?
The fate of Artemis is an crucial issue not only for NASA, but also for the U.S. commercial space industry, the European Space Agency and other international partners committed to returning humans to the moon. In the case of Artemis, the United States is competing with China to establish a significant presence on the lunar surface.
Based on conversations with people involved in developing space policy for the Trump administration, I can make some assumptions about how to interpret Musk’s comments. None of these people would agree, for example, with Musk’s statement that “Artemis’ architecture is extremely inefficient” and that some changes are warranted.
With this in mind, the Artemis program is not likely to go away. After all, it was the first Trump administration that created this program about five years ago. But what is less well remembered is that Trump’s first White House pushed for more significant changes, including a “significant course correction” at NASA.
“I call on NASA to adopt a new policy and a new way of thinking,” he added. – said then-Vice President Mike Pence in May 2019. “If our current contractors cannot meet this goal, we will find those who can.” (Speaking of the Vice President, it is unlikely that the National Space Council will be re-established under J.D. Vance).