Waiting For TrumpSpace
Will Trump go to Mars? Nasa’s nervous wait, The Guardian
“The space policies were not very different. People would joke that you could take an editorial by a Republican space person, change a couple of words here and there and then put Clinton’s name on it. We were all assuming that Clinton would win. I knew who the people were that would show up at Nasa the next day to begin the transition process,” says Keith Cowing, a former Nasa employee who now edits Nasawatch.com. Then, of course, Trump won. At first it seemed no big deal, but then surprising events started to unfold. A day or two after the election, none of the expected Republican advisers were named as part of the Trump transition team for space. “They were either thrown off because they were lobbyists or had decided that they did not want to be involved,” says Cowing, who has been reporting on Nasa from Washington DC for 20 years. “Suddenly it went from what seemed to be clarity to complete mystery.”
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Chris Shank has a background with Pete Worden that pre-dates his time with Mike Griffin. Maybe he will go back to his “roots” and remember that the government paying tens of billions to develop big rockets is idiotic. Maybe we could get Dr. Worden as NASA Administrator!
Dr Worden is certainly more qualified than many.
Last time I looked, neither Bezos nor Musk nor Washington State nor California were exactly supportive of Donald Trump or the Republican party – especially the Silicon Valley investors who fund Musk’s SpaceX with capital. Meanwhile, how about Alabama, Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana? Do they support Trump and the Republicans? So now while I don’t think politics alone should determine space programs – even though they often do – given that NASA still wants SLS and given where it is being developed and manufactured, why would the new Administration prioritize SLS cancellation? The problem with SLS is the same as the whole exploration program – there isn’t enough funding to do either the Moon or Mars – just to launch one rocket every several years. If the new Administration decides to do an exploration program, they will make more SLS’ and they will be cheaper.