{"id":18708,"date":"2017-12-11T20:09:19","date_gmt":"2017-12-11T12:09:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/moon-mars-and-jobs-trump-puts-his-spin-on-space-policy-with-details-to-come\/"},"modified":"2017-12-11T20:09:19","modified_gmt":"2017-12-11T12:09:19","slug":"moon-mars-and-jobs-trump-puts-his-spin-on-space-policy-with-details-to-come","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/moon-mars-and-jobs-trump-puts-his-spin-on-space-policy-with-details-to-come\/","title":{"rendered":"Moon, Mars and jobs: Trump puts his spin on space policy, with details to come"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_383367\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-383367\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-383367\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/t2-630x431.jpg\" alt=\"Donald Trump and Harrison Schmitt\" width=\"630\" height=\"431\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/t2-630x431.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/t2-768x526.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/t2-1260x863.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/t2.jpg 1577w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-383367\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt gives an astronaut figurine to President Donald Trump after the signing of Space Policy Directive 1. Among the onlookers at far right are Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin and NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, who holds the U.S. record for cumulative time spent in space. A sample of lunar rock collected during Apollo 17 sits on Trump\u2019s table. (White House via YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>President Donald Trump today signed a space policy directive that calls on NASA to establish an outpost on the moon and send astronauts onward to Mars and beyond, but leaves the \u201chow\u201d and the \u201chow much\u201d for later.<\/p>\n<p>Trump invoked the legacy of the Apollo space program during the Oval Office signing ceremony. And to emphasize that connection, the White House brought in Harrison \u201cJack\u201d Schmitt, the former senator and astronaut who was part of the last Apollo mission in 1972.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday, we pledge that he will not be the last, and I suspect we\u2019ll be finding other places to land in addition to the moon,\u201d Trump said. \u201cWhat do you think, Jack?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes, we should,\u201d Schmitt replied. \u201cLearn from the moon.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The memorandum known as Space Policy Directive 1 codifies the moon as NASA\u2019s next big target for human spaceflight. That policy reverses President Barack Obama\u2019s 2010 decision to focus on visiting a near-Earth asteroid, and is more in line with the back-to-the-moon vision that President George W. Bush laid out in 2004.<\/p>\n<p>Trump emphasized that 21st-century moonshots would be more ambitious than the Apollo 17 landing that Schmitt took part in exactly 45 years ago today.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis time, we will not only plant our flag and leave our footprints,\u201d the president said. \u201cWe will establish a foundation for an eventual mission to Mars, and perhaps someday to many worlds beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Among those in attendance were Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, NASA astronauts Peggy Whitson and Christina Koch, and a bevy of lawmakers, officials and industry executives.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Presidential Space Policy Directs NASA to Return Humans to Moon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GNZY6BHTg2o?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Before signing the directive, Trump briefly shared the spotlight with Vice President Mike Pence, who chairs the administration\u2019s National Space Council. Pence praised the policy and told Trump that by signing the directive, \u201cyou are ensuring that America will lead in space once again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, lots of gaps remain to be filled in. Trump\u2019s choice for NASA administrator, U.S. Rep. Jim Bridenstine, has not yet been confirmed by the Senate. Instead, acting administrator Robert Lightfoot represented the agency\u2019s leadership at today\u2019s signing.<\/p>\n<p>NASA has not yet laid out a plan for returning Americans to the lunar surface. Instead, it\u2019s been focusing on a \u201cDeep Space Gateway\u201d that could host astronauts in lunar orbit and serve as a platform for missions to Mars.<\/p>\n<p>The Trump administration isn\u2019t expected to lay out a budget plan to back up its policy initiative until next year. Costs associated with beyond-Earth-orbit exploration have been the downfall for previous space exploration plans, including Obama\u2019s and Bush\u2019s visions.<\/p>\n<p>During today\u2019s ceremony, Trump put extra emphasis on the space effort\u2019s implications for the economy and the military. \u201cSpace has so much to do with so many other applications, including a military application,\u201d he said. \u201cSo we are the leader, and we\u2019re going to stay the leader, and we\u2019re going to increase it many-fold.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As he sat down to sign the directive, the president made sure to cover the employment angle as well: \u201cThis is very exciting, and very important for our country, and it also happens to mean jobs. Jobs! And we love jobs, too, right?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"New Policy Directs NASA to Return Astronauts to Moon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YzKxUM_RJsE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The policy received positive reviews from industry groups such as the Coalition for Deep Space Exploration and the Commercial Spaceflight Federation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe U.S. commercial space industry has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in private capital to develop innovative capabilities for lunar transport, operations and resource utilization,&nbsp;leading to many lower-cost innovative approaches that can benefit this new era of lunar exploration,\u201d Eric Stallmer, president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Stallmer said the White House should direct NASA to \u201cleverage these capabilities to generate greater efficiency and quicker solutions, and to partner with industry through flexible, innovative contracting approaches, to accelerate progress toward achieving the goals set out in Space Policy Directive 1.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, the Texas Republican who chairs the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, hailed the directive as well. \u201cThis administration\u2019s dedication to space is a refreshing change from the past eight years,\u201d Smith said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Not everyone, however, was impressed by the policy\u2019s rollout.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJFK called for reaching for the moon in a resounding speech before a joint session of Congress,\u201d Robert Zubrin, founder and president of the nonprofit Mars Society, said in a tweet. \u201cTrump mumbles his way through a reading of a signing statement for his putative moon program in a private ceremony at the White House. \u2026 How we have fallen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-0\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" class=\"\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden; width: 0px; height: 0px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;\" title=\"X Post\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=b0yle&amp;dnt=true&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-0&amp;features=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%3D%3D&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=940332493953290241&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.geekwire.com%2F2017%2Fmoon-mars-jobs-trump-puts-spin-space-policy-details-come%2F&amp;sessionId=33db037589a63ff6c0eb217f5d465a95886c0db8&amp;siteScreenName=geekwire&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&amp;width=550px\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\" data-twitter-extracted-i1782801752503843167=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">#OTD 45 years ago, Astronaut Harrison Schmitt landed on the Moon. Here, at a signing ceremony instructing NASA to send humans back to the lunar surface, he shows @IvankaTrump the Moon sample he collected in 1972: https:\/\/t.co\/rgKiSVsr3B pic.twitter.com\/h5deRQF3p9<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NASA (@NASA) December 11, 2017<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt gives an astronaut figurine to President Donald Trump after the signing of Space Policy Directive 1. Among the onlookers at far right are Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin and NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, who holds the U.S. record for cumulative time spent in space. A sample of lunar rock collected [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2539,367,625,1488,4467],"class_list":["post-18708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-donald-trump","tag-mars","tag-moon","tag-national-space-council","tag-politics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18708"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18708\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}