Trump and Musk’s Bromance Could Make America’s Space Policy a Wild Ride

The budding bromance between SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and president-elect Donald Trump might have huge implications for the US’ house program — assuming the volatile pair don’t flame out, as each have repeatedly completed with different allies.

That is very true when factoring in NASA’s present technique of counting on the personal house {industry} for initiatives starting from attending to the surface of the Moon to building a space station in Earth’s orbit.

As Durham College astropolitics affiliate professor Bleddyn Bowen argues in an essay for The Conversation, the weird pair-up between the brand new president and the richest man on the planet might see the US doubling down on its current personal industry-led house coverage, whereas probably supercharging an rising arms race within the Earth’s orbit.

In some methods, the Trump administration might merely proceed the place it left off 4 years in the past, with an emphasis on the Artemis Moon touchdown program, which has continued below the present Biden administration.

However the inclusion of Musk in Trump’s internal circle this time round might additionally shake up NASA’s priorities.

As SpacePolicyOnline editor Marcia Smith recently noted, the US could double down on human spaceflight efforts, an endeavor lengthy championed by his new right-hand man. Remember that in his first time period, Trump offered the head of NASA limitless funding if the company might get to Mars throughout his presidency.

“For the entire cash we’re spending, NASA ought to NOT be speaking about going to the Moon — We did that fifty years in the past,” Trump tweeted in 2019. “They need to be centered on the a lot larger issues we’re doing, together with Mars (of which the Moon is part), Protection and Science!”

That is all nonetheless hypothetical. In spite of everything, Trump did not appoint Musk because the nation’s house coverage czar — as a substitute, the richest man on the planet has been put in command of a still-fictional “Department of Government Efficiency,” which can allegedly be tasked with “dismantling authorities paperwork” and slashing “extra rules.”

That function might facilitate Musk’s starvation to break down environmental rules that have been put in place, for example, to protect wildlife inhabiting the area surrounding his house firm’s so-called “Starbase” amenities in South Texas.

On the similar time, particularly given Trump’s ongoing denial of local weather change, different authorities companies such because the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) or NASA’s Earth Sciences Division might face main price range cuts, Smith argued.

And do not forget thatNASA was already severely underfunded below the Biden administration, with Congress balking on the house company’s ballooning budgetary demands. Simply this week, NASA’s iconic Jet Propulsion Lab in California announced it might be shedding an extra 325 workers.

The place a GOP-led Congress will go away NASA’s monetary state of affairs stays to be seen. As Smith factors out, round half of its price range is at present allotted to its human spaceflight program.

The brand new administration might additionally majorly shake up the Nationwide House Council, which is by regulation overseen by the Vice President. As Bowen factors out, vice chairman Kamala Harris formalized a ban on anti-satellite weapons exams in 2022, one thing that could possibly be revoked below vice president-elect JD Vance.

So far as we are able to inform, Vance has no background in house in anyway, making his management over the council an enormous query mark.

On a world degree, Trump’s saber-rattling “America First” strategy might drastically deteriorate overseas relations, particularly in relation to house.

Nonetheless, alienating the worldwide house neighborhood might have devastating results on the nation’s efforts to ascertain dominance in house.

“I feel we’re simply going to attend and see how that performs out,” former US House Command deputy commander John Shaw stated throughout a latest episode the House Basis podcast, as quoted by SpaceNews. “It’s exhausting to do issues by yourself in house, as a result of we’re all in there collectively. It will be like making an attempt to do air site visitors management all by your self.”

Extra on house coverage: It Sounds Like NASA’s Moon Rocket Might Be Getting Canceled