It is unlikely that NASA will become a top priority for the newly elected president. But it is expected that the emphasis will be placed on the study of deep space and an increase in investment in the private sector.
The US space program is not the first item on the state list of elected President Donald Trump. Yet she will not be in the lower positions after the Republican victory over the advantageous Hillary Clinton.
“Trump understands, as Reagan did before him, that without a strong economy there can be no strong space program,” wrote campaign adviser Bob Walker, a former US congressman, and University of California-Irwin professor Peter Navarro wrote in a column published last month .
Trump intends to buy more government space services, in particular, for military projects from the private sector. And this policy bodes well for companies such as SpaceX (Ilona Mask), Blue Origin (Jeff Bezos) and Stratolaunch Systems (Paul Allen), as well as for more reputable companies, including the United Launch Alliance and Orbital ATK.
“Increased confidence in the private sector will become the cornerstone of Trump’s space policy,” consultants write, adding that the administration will search for “private sectors whose solutions do not require mandatory public investment.” But the relationship with SpaceX may not work out at first. Dex Torrike-Barton, the company's head of public relations, wrote in his Twitter in response to Trump's victory: “Horror. Horror "and" The earth fell. "
In an interview with NBC News, Trump's campaign manager, Kallian Conway, said Wednesday that the media that were united in predicting Clinton's victory could not see the surge support the audacious billionaire businessman who was running for public office for the first time.
DrudgeReport.com was the first to announce the end of the race, and soon after midnight they placed a headline: “Trump wins the historical uprising.” The site fivethirtyeight.com Nate Silver has already reported a shift in computer models for counting election results.
“We did not have a campaign, but rather an incredible and great movement consisting of millions of hard-working men and women,” Trump said in his first speech as an elected president.
NASA, NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and military space programs will be reviewed after Trump takes office on January 20th.
“I do not expect NASA to be a priority for the new administration. At least I hope not. There are too many more important issues for the nation, ”said Dale Ketchum, chief strategist at the Economic Space Development Agency of Florida.
“But we have to be in the top 25, so I expect to see a new NASA administrator and center directors throughout the year. Their identities and their orders from the Oval Office will be what most of us will focus on, ”said Ketchum. “The greatest potential for the elections,” he added, “will be the likelihood that all federal agencies, and not just NASA, will be subjected to a more aggressive assessment of their actions. This may be right for all organizations, not just the government, so as not to be subject to occasional adjustments. The implications of this revision will be very important, and it is very difficult to predict the results. ”
NASA's annual budget is about $ 19 billion.
“I think that we can be sure that the new administration of Trump and future administrations after him will continue the course that Barack Obama has set up for us,” wrote NASA administrator Charlie Bolden in a memo for employees on Wednesday.
According to Walker, the president intends to revive the National Space Council - an interdepartmental space political steering group headed by a vice president.
The last time the council was active was during the administration of George W. Bush, who held the presidency from 1989 to 1993.
“Subsequent presidents decided not to fund employees or the council, although they still exist in the legislation,” writes Marcia Smith, editor of SpacePolicyOnline.com.
“Opinions in the space policy community about the value of such a Council cover the whole range,” Smith writes. “Opponents argue that this is just another White House who prefers to say no to any idea instead of trying and doing something. Proponents insist that a top-level mechanism is needed not only to effectively coordinate state civil and national commercial security programs, but also to bring it to the commercial sector and develop a holistic approach to outer space. ”
Currently, the White House National Security Council oversees the national space security policy. Civilian space policy is subordinated to the White House’s science and technology policy department with the assistance of the management and budget division.
On October 26, Walker told the Federal Aviation Administration's Commercial Transportation Advisory Committee that Trump’s space plan can be described in four terms: “It’s farsighted, impenetrable, coordinated, and cheerful.”
The goals include a human exploration of the solar system by the end of the century and a shift to the NASA budget, where deep space exploration will become a priority, not science and research on Earth’s climate.
