After resuscitating the National Space Council in 2017, President Donald Trump may bury the executive body once again given its potential to disagree with the ambitious goals of the private space industry.
Trump’s newly sworn-in administration may dismantle the space council, a body within the Executive Office of the President that oversees and coordinates space policy, according to a Reuters report. Although Trump used the space council to establish the U.S. Space Force during his first term, the proposed oversight of the bureaucratic body may no longer align with the president’s presumed privately-led vision for space policy.
The National Space Council was first established by the 1958 law that created NASA, and has convened sporadically ever since. “The main purpose is to coordinate space policy among the various aspects of government that intersect or depend on space or space assets,” Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at The Planetary Society, told Gizmodo. “It’s an interagency coordinating body. By law, when active it must have a User Advisory Group of industry and other representatives to provide input into the council’s decision-making process.”
The role of the space council has been up for debate by nearly every new administration that came to power, but it was officially disbanded in 1993 soon after President Bill Clinton took office as part of his efforts to streamline White House bureaucracy. After being inactive for nearly 25 years, Trump’s first term brought new life to the space council. Its reestablishment helped created the Space Force as the sixth branch of the armed forces and push toward a human return to the Moon.
According to the Reuters report, however, lobbyists at Elon Musk’s SpaceX have been pushing to do away with the space council during Trump’s second term, calling it a “waste of time,” anonymous sources told the media outlet. The space council, chaired by former Vice President Kamala Harris, did not receive a call from Trump following his election victory, while NASA and other agencies were contacted regarding transition plans, Reuters reported. The space council’s website currently displays a “404 page not found” error on the homepage.
Throughout his campaign, Trump stayed close to rocket billionaire Musk, who is set to lead a new Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE for short. Musk is openly critical of regulations that govern the space industry, which he feels stand in the way of his ambitious plans to reach Mars.
In 2023, the space council spearheaded a proposal to provide oversight of novel commercial space activities and implement a “mission authorization” policy. The proposed framework did not sit well with leaders of the private industry. “There are critiques of the council that say it is redundant and adds an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy to the decision-making process,” Dreier said. “The new Trump administration may be taking a similar view, particularly given the DOGE/efficiency slant that has taken shape within it.”
“My guess is that it also represents a further consolidation and centralization of decision-making among a core group of advisers and the President,” he added.
Shortly after being sworn in as president, Trump highlighted his goal of “launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars,” a goal that is clearly shared by his rocket buddy Musk. Trump is also likely to appoint billionaire and private astronaut Jared Isaacman to lead NASA, a selection that likely favors commercial efforts to explore space.
Prior to Trump’s revival of the council, the space council had remained dormant for quite sometime and many presidents had refused to utilize it. If Trump should decide to disband the space council, “it’s actually more of a return to the recent norms rather than signifying a new direction for the industry or the space sector,” Dreier said.
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