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Biden Space

National Space Council Leadership Update

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
May 12, 2021
Filed under ,
National Space Council Leadership Update

Keith’s note: The news that the White House wants to name former Rep. Kendra Horn to be executive Secretary of the National Space Council was not exactly thrilled a lot of people. In case you weren’t paying attention, with Horn at the helm of the National Space Council, Big Aerospace and its allies would now be in control of NASA and the National Space Council. Her support for H.R. 5666 would have resulted in a government-only lunar program which would have favored the likes of Boeing, Lockheed Martin, etc. Now that the whole Artemis thing is up for some re-thinking who knows where the National Space Council and its Users Advisory Group might decide to steer it.
It is still unclear as to the exact pecking order that will be in place with regard to space policy and PCAST (President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology) and OSTP (White House Office of Science and Technology), the National Space Council/Users Advisory Group; the National Security Council, and the Vice President’s office. Right now it seems that PCAST/OSTP is on one side and interacts with the President, while National Space Council is on the other answering to the Vice President, while the National Security Council off in their own bubble interacting directly with the President. There are no straight lines in this management chart.
It seems from sources that main White House force behind the idea of appointing Kendra Horn to be Executive Secretary of the National Space Council is Cedric Richmond, Senior Advisor and Director of the Office of Public Engagement. Richmond and Horn are personal friends, sources report. But why, you may ask, is he (or anyone else in the White House) making a previously apolitical position into a political one when much more qualified professionals could have been considered? I am now starting to hear doubts and disturbance in The Force emerge up within the White House/Space bubble that the Kendra Horn thing may not necessarily be a done deal after all. Not everyone inside the space bubble is happy about this. No formal press statement from the Vice President’s office has been issued – yet. So stay tuned.

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

10 responses to “National Space Council Leadership Update”

  1. Hari says:
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    So does Elon have his own ex-Congress man or woman in such a key position of influence? If not, why not

    • Emmet Ford says:
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      This is the one glaring hole in Elon’s game. He does not do lobbying well, and he has not recruited someone who does it well to do it for him.

      • mfwright says:
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        Seems to me he has a huge fan base of hundreds of thousands and many are voters.

        • Emmet Ford says:
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          Voters are often very much in favor of policies that never get enacted. Politicians have voters and they have donors. They get money from the donors and use that money to market themselves to the voters. That marketing is often very light on policy issues, heavy on outrage inducing cultural issues.

          In return for the money they receive from donors, politicians do what the donors want and they don’t do what the donors don’t want. And the donors pay close attention to what the politicians do and don’t do all the time, unlike the voters.

          This situation has worsened over time as the courts have ruled that corporations are people and money is speech, making our political system more of a plutocracy and less of a democracy.

          And most voters do not care about space and are not paying any attention to what is going on with regard to space policy. In the 1960s, Apollo was an unpopular program.

          • Michael Spencer says:
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            Many agree with this assessment of modern political life in America. Personally, I find it cynically self-fulfilling.

    • Chris says:
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      I believe SpaceX has some type of lobbying arm but nothing in comparison to that of defense contractors, or even Amazon.

  2. Chris says:
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    Wish Bridenstine had never left.

    • Michael Spencer says:
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      I’d say give Mr. Nelson a chance.

      Perhaps his long history will somehow disappear and he surprises us all 🙂

      • Zed_WEASEL says:
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        Senator Nelson have basically one Presidential term to have the glory of a few US government employees walking on the Moon during his watch. He will not be happy with any delays to the Artemis HLS lander program, which have only one lander that might make the 2024 deadline.

  3. Winner says:
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    As I said in a recent comment on the article about Nelson wanting to use “official titles”, Han Solo said “I’ve got a bad feeling about this”.