The White House has championed a new era of US leadership in space, but its aspirations are complicated by tight budgets, vacancies in top posts and the rising role of private industry in aerospace innovation, experts say. During a speech Thursday at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Vice President Mike Pence delighted hundreds of space agency employees and contractors by pledging that "under President Trump, we will achieve more in space than we ever thought possible."
Pence promised a "return to the Moon," as well as "American boots on the face of Mars" and a "constant presence in low-Earth orbit." But as the flag-waving enthusiasm faded, some were left wondering what exactly Pence meant. "'Moon' could mean anything - commercial, robotic, international or otherwise," said Phil Larson, a White House space adviser under president Barack Obama and formerly an official with privately owned SpaceX.
Larson described a series of recent space-themed orations by Pence as "no cake, just icing." John Logsdon, former head of the George Washington University Space Policy Institute, agreed. "I think (Thursday's) speech was, of course, short on substance because there is no substance," Logsdon said. Some are skeptical of the White House's soaring rhetoric because crucial leadership positions remain unfilled.
For instance, the US space agency set a dubious record on the Fourth of July: the longest span of time that a newly elected president has gone without naming a new NASA chief. The previous record was a 164-day stretch in 1971 under President Richard Nixon. NASA is currently headed by an "acting administrator" - engineer Robert Lightfoot, who took over when former astronaut Charles Bolden, an Obama appointee, stepped down. Also empty is the chief of the White House's Office of Science and Technology and Policy, once a key player in crafting NASA's agenda.
It is common for incoming presidents to review their predecessor's space plans and issue a course correction early on. Although Trump may be late in the process, "he has now created a mechanism for taking a look at the current program," Logsdon explained. That mechanism is the revival of the National Space Council - announced last month - accompanied by an external advisory group of industry experts. Pence, a long-time space enthusiast, is heading the National Space Council, now in its third iteration after last shutting down in 1993.
The council aims to guide space policy by including the secretaries of state, defense, commerce, transportation and homeland security, along with intelligence and military leaders and the NASA chief. The council will hold its first meeting before summer is out, Pence said. After that, the dollars allocated to NASA - and the projects they fund - will tell much of the story.