While details remain in flux, the transition team reviewing NASA and its operations has begun developing potential executive orders for changes to space policy under the Trump administration.
Sources familiar with the five people on the team who have spent the last six weeks assessing the space agency and its exploration plans were careful to note that such teams are advisory in nature. They do not formally set policy, and their work does not always indicate the direction the incoming presidential administration will take.
Nevertheless, in an attempt to set clear goals for NASA and civilian space policy, the ideas under consideration reflect the Trump administration’s desire for “big changes” at NASA, both in terms of increasing the efficiency and speed of implementation of its programs.
Not like usual
The transition team is struggling with an agency that has an overabundance of field centers – ten scattered across the United States and a formal headquarters in Washington, D.C. – and enormous, ponderous programs that cost a lot of money and require results that are ponderous to deliver.
“This won’t be an ordinary meeting,” said one person familiar with the group’s meetings. Their deliberations are based on a mindset that focuses on results and speed.
In a little less than a month, on January 20, Donald Trump will be inaugurated as president for a second term. He is expected to sign a series of executive orders that day on issues on which he campaigned. That could include space policy, but that’s more likely to wait until later in his presidency.
One source said the space transition team is working on ideas Trump has talked about publicly, including his interest in Mars. For example, during his fall campaign speech, Trump referenced SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who played a significant role in the campaign both in terms of time and money, as well as his desire to inhabit Mars.
“We lead in space over Russia and China… That’s my plan, I’ll talk to Elon.” Trump said in September. “Elon will launch these 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 to consider
The transition team discussed possible elements of an implementing regulation or other policy directives. These include:
- Setting a goal of sending humans to the Moon and Mars by 2028
- Canceling the pricey Space Launch System rocket and possibly the Orion spacecraft
- Consolidation of Goddard Space Flight Center and Ames Research Center into Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama
- Maintaining a compact administration presence in Washington, D.C., but otherwise moving headquarters to a field center
- Rapid redesign of the Artemis lunar program to make it more capable