How NASA Might Change Under Donald Trump

While details remain undecided, the transition team is reviewing NASA And its activities have begun drafting possible executive orders for changes in space policy under the Trump administration.

Sources familiar with the five people on the team, which spent the past six weeks evaluating the space agency and its exploration plans, cautioned that such teams are advisory in nature. They do not formally set policy nor do their work always dictate the direction an incoming presidential administration will take.

Nevertheless, in an effort to set clear goals for NASA and civilian space policy, the ideas under consideration reflect the Trump administration’s desire to make “big changes” at NASA, both in terms of increasing its effectiveness and momentum.

Not business as usual

The transition team grappled with an agency that had a surplus of field centers—ten spread across the United States, as well as a formal headquarters in Washington, D.C.—and large, slow-moving programs that cost a lot of money and were slow to deliver results.

“It will not be business as usual,” said a person familiar with the group’s meetings. Their thinking-driven mindset focuses on results and speed.

Donald Trump will be inaugurated for his second term as president on January 20, less than a month from now. He is expected to sign several executive orders on the issues he campaigned on that day. That could include space policy, but that will likely wait until his presidency.

A source said the space transition team is working from ideas that Trump has publicly stated, including his interest in Mars. For example, during a campaign speech this fall, Trump mentioned SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who was instrumental in both time and money during the campaign, and his desire to settle Mars.

“We’re leading the way in space over Russia and China… That’s my plan, I’ll talk to Elon,” Trump in September. “Elon let those rocket ships go because we want to get to Mars before my term ends and we also want great military protection in space.”

Ideas under consideration

The transition team is discussing possible elements of an executive order or other policy directive. They include:

• Setting a goal of sending humans to the Moon and Mars by 2028
• Abolishing the expensive Space Launch System rocket and possibly the Orion spacecraft
• Consolidation of Goddard Space Flight Center and Ames Research Center at Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama
• Maintaining a small administration presence in Washington, DC, but otherwise moving the headquarters to a field center
• The Artemis lunar program is being rapidly redesigned to make it more efficient