One of the lesser-noted lines from Donald Trump’s inaugural address was “We stand at the birth of a new millennium, ready to unlock the mysteries of space.” During his speech to a joint session of Congress a month later, the president said, “American footprints on distant worlds are not too big a dream.”
His predecessor didn’t reference space or the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in either of his inaugural addresses. Barack Obama did mention NASA in four State of the Union addresses, but three used the agency simply as an example to inspire future funding for medical and green research.
One of Trump’s weekly addresses earlier this year focused on NASA, complete with awe-inspiring music and video, and in April the president held a video conference with two astronauts on the International Space Station.
Space clearly isn’t a top priority for a president primarily focused on the economy and immigration. He hasn’t named a new NASA administrator yet. Robert Lightfoot is the acting head, after serving as associate administrator during the Obama administration. The Trump budget keeps NASA funding stagnant—actually, a few hundred million less. But it includes sweeping cuts to nearly every other nondefense discretionary program, even phasing out some. The cuts in the NASA budget, moreover, are almost entirely in earth science, or climate change research.
The president has shown rhetorical affection for NASA, which Obama often neglected. Considering that talk is paramount for both presidents, that means something.
President Trump has signed two NASA-related bills. First, a $19.5 billion appropriations bill for NASA for the remainder of fiscal 2017. Trump’s fiscal 2018 budget proposal only reduced proposed NASA funding to $19.1 billion. The day before mentioning space exploration in his address to Congress, Trump signed the Inspiring the Next Space Pioneers, Innovators, Researchers, and Explorers (INSPIRE) Women Act. The law directs NASA to encourage women and girls to seek education and work opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and math, known as STEM fields.
During his April video conference with astronauts, Trump talked up private investment in space—which is the only long-term sustainable path for the program: “I have many friends that are so excited about space. They want to get involved in space from the standpoint of entrepreneurship and business.” Trump praised Commander Peggy Whitson for setting a record for the most time spent by an American in space. Then, shifting to the CEO’s habit of looking at the bottom line, inquired, “What are we learning by being in space?”
Whitson, joined by Colonel Jack Fischer, offered examples of studies to make oxygen last for longer flight durations in preparation for a mission to Mars in the 2030s and space-based research on medicines for treating muscular dystrophy and Alzheimer’s back on earth. The president responded with Trumpspeak: “That’s fantastic. That is really great. I saw some of the work, and it’s incredible. You know, I’ve been dealing with politicians so much, I’m so much more impressed with these people. You have no idea.”
It seems space is another area in which Trump wants to see America win again.
With all this activity, legislative and rhetorical, “this administration has been one of the most active on space in the first 100 days,” said NASA spokeswoman Jen Rae Wang.
NASA faced a rocky time during the Obama years. Obama’s NASA administrator Charles Bolden said the president charged him with three priorities: First, inspire children to study science and math; second, expand international relationships; and third, reach out to the Muslim world to “help them feel good” about their contributions to science, math, and engineering. This seemed to signal space flight and exploration were no higher than fourth.
The NASA Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee’s 2009 report asserted, “The U.S. human spaceflight program appears to be on an unsustainable trajectory. . . . Space operations are among the most demanding and unforgiving pursuits ever undertaken by humans. It really is rocket science. Space operations become all the more difficult when means do not match aspirations.”
Climate change was another high priority, causing some angst among NASA alumni. In April 2012, 7 Apollo astronauts and 2 former directors of the Johnson Space Center in Houston were among the 49 former astronauts and NASA scientists who signed a letter stating the agency’s involvement in the global warming debate “is unbecoming of NASA’s history of making an objective assessment of all available scientific data prior to making decisions or public statements.”
That’s likely to change, said Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee. “Over the last eight years, the Obama administration disproportionately increased favored programs to the detriment of others,” Smith said. “Earth science funding requests went from $1.198 billion for 2007 to $2.032 billion for 2017, while funding for planetary science and human exploration were strangled. Going forward, it appears as though Congress and the president agree that a balanced NASA is a priority.”
It was also under Obama that America—which won the space race during the Cold War—became reliant on Russia to send an astronaut to the International Space Station after NASA’s storied—but very expensive—shuttle program came to an end. Earlier this year, NASA agreed to pay $373 million for Russia to launch American astronauts into space through 2019. However, the $19.5 billion appropriation bill Trump signed requires NASA to develop domestic crew transportation as quickly as it’s safely possible.
“Boeing and SpaceX, the commercial crew contractors, are currently scheduled to launch in late 2018 or early 2019,” Smith said. “Moreover, the bill prohibits the use of foreign services if a domestic capability exists. This will ensure that American astronauts once again launch on American rockets from American soil.”
NASA will be buying rides from the private sector, said Stephen Fleming, vice president for strategic business initiatives at the University of Arizona. “We pay Russia $60 million per person. The private sector can do it for $6 million,” said Fleming, a former venture capitalist who focused on space opportunities.
It’s still too early to assess Trump’s absolute commitment to space, but Fleming said he is heartened by the rhetoric. “He seems to have more of an understanding that NASA is a priceless national asset and wants to focus on doing things that only NASA can do.”
The private sector is key to weaning off dependence on Russia, Fleming said, adding investors took a “40-year detour” from space exploration because there was little return on investment to encourage the private sector to build on the technology of the ’60s and ’70s. That’s no longer the case, he said, as key players such as SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, and Blue Origin, owned by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, are seeking to cash in.
A Goldman Sachs report issued in April predicts space will be “a multi-trillion-dollar market within the next two decades.” The report says the satellite industry will expand, and forecasts new industries such as “space tourism, asteroid mining, and on-orbit manufacturing” springing up. Asteroid mining alone could vastly reduce the price of rocket fuel and solve many energy needs back home. “Exploration used to be the domain of governments, but is increasingly being privatized,” the report says.
Trump is excited about the budding commercial space flight industry, and wants to encourage competition and innovation in that area, a White House spokesman said. About 75 percent of space sector private investment since 2000 happened in the last five years, which includes eight startups in space. More than 50 venture capital firms invested in space in 2015, more than the 15 preceding years combined, the Goldman report says.
“When your neighbor’s son is working in space, that’s when people will take notice,” Fleming said. “We’ll start seeing a lot of blue-collar jobs in space.”
Fred Lucas is the White House correspondent for the Daily Signal and author of Tainted by Suspicion: The Secret Deals and Electoral Chaos of Disputed Presidential Elections.
