SpaceX founder Elon Musk is known for his outspokenness and controversial comments on his social media site X, but he has been relatively restrained when it comes to U.S. space policy in recent years. .
For example, he rarely criticized NASA or its overall goal of returning humans to the moon through the Artemis program. Rather, Musk, who has long favored Mars as a human destination, has been more or less a team player when it comes to the space agency’s moon-focused plans.
SpaceX has a multibillion-dollar contract to not only build a human landing system as part of the Artemis program, but also to supply food, cargo and other logistics services to the planned lunar gateway in orbit. This is also understandable from a financial perspective. month.
But Musk has privately criticized NASA’s plans, suggesting the Artemis program is moving too slowly and relying too much on contractors seeking cost-plus government contracts to deliver results. He indicated that he was not very interested.
Policy silence is over
Over the past 10 days, Musk has begun expressing some of these personal thoughts publicly. For example, on Christmas Day, Musk wrote about X: We need something completely new. ”
And on Thursday night, he added: “No, we’re going straight to Mars. The moon is a distraction.”
These are decisive statements that go directly against NASA’s plans to send a series of crewed missions to the moon’s south pole later this year and establish a sustainable operating base there with the Artemis mission.
It would be a different story if Mr. Musk was just expressing his opinion as a private citizen. But since playing a key role in Donald Trump’s presidential campaign last year, Musk has assumed the role of a key advisor to the incoming administration. He was also partly responsible for the expected nomination of commercial astronaut Jared Isaacman to be NASA’s next administrator. Mr. Musk may not be directing U.S. space policy, but he certainly has a meaningful say in what happens.
So what does this mean for Artemis?
The fate of Artemis is an important issue not only for NASA, but also for the U.S. commercial space industry, the European Space Agency, and other international partners working together to return humans to the moon. With Artemis, the United States is competing with China to establish a meaningful presence on the moon.
Based on conversations with people involved in the development of space policy in the Trump administration, I can make some educated guesses about how to interpret Mr. Musk’s comments. For example, no one would dispute Musk’s claim that “Artemis’ architecture is highly inefficient” and that some changes are justified.
That being said, the Artemis program probably won’t go away. After all, it was the original Trump administration that created this program about five years ago. But what may be less well-remembered is that the first president, Trump, pushed for more profound changes, including a “major course correction” at NASA.
“We urge NASA to adopt new policies and embrace new thinking,” then-Vice President Mike Pence said in May 2019, adding, “If current contractors meet this goal, If we can’t do it, we’ll find someone to make it happen.” (As for the vice president, the National Space Council is unlikely to be reconstituted under J.D. Vance).