{"id":18893,"date":"2017-07-01T00:49:29","date_gmt":"2017-06-30T16:49:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/president-trump-signs-his-executive-order-to-reactivate-the-national-space-council\/"},"modified":"2017-07-01T00:49:29","modified_gmt":"2017-06-30T16:49:29","slug":"president-trump-signs-his-executive-order-to-reactivate-the-national-space-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/president-trump-signs-his-executive-order-to-reactivate-the-national-space-council\/","title":{"rendered":"President Trump signs his executive order to reactivate the National Space Council"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_345904\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-345904\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-345904\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/170630-trump-space-630x551.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"630\" height=\"551\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/170630-trump-space-630x551.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/170630-trump-space-768x671.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/170630-trump-space.jpg 922w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-345904\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">President Donald Trump shows off an executive order reviving the National Space Council. NASA astronaut Alvin Drew, Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin and Vice President Mike Pence, the council\u2019s chairman, are at far right. (Shannon Augustus \/ C-SPAN via Twitter)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>After months of foreshadowing, President Donald Trump today signed an executive order to revive the National Space Council, a move that\u2019s likely to open the way for space policy changes that have been largely put on hold during the White House transition.<\/p>\n<p>The order was signed at a White House ceremony on the eve of a long Fourth of July weekend. Among those in attendance: members of Congress, Boeing\u2019s Dennis Muilenburg and other aerospace executives, and astronauts including Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday\u2019s announcement sends a clear signal to the world that we are restoring America\u2019s proud legacy of leadership in space,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n<p>Vice President Mike Pence will serve as the council\u2019s chairman, and the members will include top-level administration officials including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary James Mattis, the heads of the Commerce, Transportation and Homeland Security departments and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.<\/p>\n<p>At least two of the spots on the roster, for NASA\u2019s administrator and the Office of Science and Technology Policy\u2019s director, are in limbo. Acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot has been in charge of the space agency in a caretaker role, and the OSTP directorship is considered vacant.<\/p>\n<p>The National Space Council was last active during the George H.W. Bush administration, with a similar membership and Vice President Dan Quayle as chair. It was disbanded in 1993 during the Clinton administration, and its functions were taken over by the National Science and Technology Council.<\/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=880873673309212676&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.geekwire.com%2F2017%2Fpresident-trump-signs-executive-order-reactivate-national-space-council%2F&amp;sessionId=316b353939842e1d7f592cffce58f6f11001ef0b&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-i1782802447057315447=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">President Trump signs executive order reinstating the National Space Council -and yes, that&#8217;s Buzz Aldrin to the right. pic.twitter.com\/CiIo0uaFsU<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 shannon A (@shogustus) June 30, 2017<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Reviving the space policy council had been a long-expected move: During an Oval Office ceremony in March, Pence said that Trump would do so \u201cin very short order.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At that ceremony, Trump signed a bill into law that laid out a blueprint for sending astronauts to Mars by 2033. The council is likely to endorse that goal and fill in the details.<\/p>\n<p>It could also recommend actions on initiatives ranging from the establishment of a Deep Space Gateway in the vicinity of the moon, to a re-examination of the Outer Space Treaty, a 50-year-old pact that puts limitations on sovereignty claims in space.<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s executive order also establishes a Users\u2019 Advisory Group, composed of industry representatives and other experts on aeronautics and space activities from outside the federal government.<\/p>\n<p>Historical precedent suggests the National Space Council\u2019s impact on policy will be dependent on how its recommendations are received by Trump and Congress. When Quayle headed the council, its top issue was how to build a base on the moon and send humans to Mars for less than $400 billion.<\/p>\n<p>Almost 30 years later, missions to the moon and Mars are still in the talking stage, despite a succession of committee reports.<\/p>\n<p>Back in 2005, Pence chaired a Republican Party study committee that recommended canceling President George W. Bush\u2019s initiative to send astronauts to the moon. That initiative ended up being canceled, but by President Barack Obama, who endorsed an initiative to send astronauts to a near-Earth asteroid instead.<\/p>\n<p>The asteroid initiative was heavily modified in the course of Obama\u2019s tenure, and faced heavy criticism from the GOP. Now that Trump is in the White House, NASA is closing down what\u2019s now known as the Asteroid Redirect Mission.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"President Trump signs executive order relaunching National Space Council\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/iUCMZDTzsgA?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>That doesn\u2019t mean the space effort is dead: Since becoming vice president, Pence has shown no inclination to go against Trump\u2019s desire to see \u201cAmerican footprints on distant worlds.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s advisers have voiced support for commercial initiatives, such as the plan to have SpaceX and Boeing ferry astronauts to the International Space Station. They\u2019ve also signaled support for sending Americans beyond Earth orbit, to the vicinity of the moon and onward to Mars.<\/p>\n<p>Phil Larson, who served as a space policy official in the Obama White House, told GeekWire in a texted message that he\u2019s \u201cnot inherently negative on a space council.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAdding a layer of bureaucracy may not speed solutions, but the council\u2019s usefulness largely depends on the policy it implements,\u201d said Larson, who is now an assistant dean at the University of Colorado-Boulder\u2019s College of Engineering and Applied Science.<\/p>\n<p>John Logsdon, professor emeritus at&nbsp;George Washington University\u2019s Space Policy Institute, agreed that the council\u2019s impact depends on \u201cwhere the path leads.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt could lead to a positive effect on the space effort, or it could, as in the past, end up not being a very important addition to U.S. space policy,\u201d he told GeekWire. \u201cI hope for the former.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>NASA Watch\u2019s Keith Cowing reported that Scott Pace, the Space Policy Institute\u2019s director, is widely expected to be named the National Space Council\u2019s executive secretary. Pace declined to comment on the executive order when contacted by GeekWire today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Donald Trump shows off an executive order reviving the National Space Council. NASA astronaut Alvin Drew, Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin and Vice President Mike Pence, the council\u2019s chairman, are at far right. (Shannon Augustus \/ C-SPAN via Twitter) After months of foreshadowing, President Donald Trump today signed an executive order to revive the [&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":[2539,190,1488],"class_list":["post-18893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-donald-trump","tag-nasa","tag-national-space-council"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18893"}],"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=18893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18893\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}