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Policy

Does Anyone Know Where The National Space Council Is Hiding? (Re-Repost)

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
August 9, 2022
Filed under , ,
Does Anyone Know Where The National Space Council Is Hiding? (Re-Repost)

Keith’s note: It is June July August 2022. The last time the National Space Council poked its head out through the curtains was December 2021. Six Seven Eight months. Does anyone know what they are doing?

If you go to the official National Space Council Users’ Advisory Group (NSpC UAG) page at NASA you are greeted with banner image of the Trump Administration’s UAG. If you go to the membership roster page it lists the same Trump UAG membership and was last updated on 8 June 2020. NASA put a notice out to get new UAG members last year and then had to extend that since no one was repsonding. But 6 months later and we’ve heard absolutely nothing about the UAG membership, what the UAG will do, when it will meet etc. The last meeting was 30 July 2020.

And of course if you go to the NASA Office of International and Interagency Relations (OIIR) who oversees all of those advisory committee things at NASA they make no mention of the National Space Council or the UAG – at all.

There is a National Space Council page at the White House with 3 paragraphs of generic text and a link to one document about a framework issued in December 2021 which is mostly buzz words and talking points – but little else. Chirag Parikh runs the National Space Council but there is no mention of him on the White House web page or how to contact him or his staff (he has staff right?). We only hear from him once every few months when he goes to some inside the beltway thing and gets quoted. But other than a few routine executive orders that any White House could have issued, there is no heart or soul residing within whatever it is that the White House wants to do in space.

Remember the early days of the Biden Administration when there was mention of the Moon once a week in a presidential speech and we all got jazzed about Moon rocks on a shelf in the Oval Office? Not any more. I would ask NASA PAO about this but they are among the most clueless when it comes to what is actually going on in terms of space policy.

Eight months have passed since the National Space Council did one of the meeting things. The UAG is still in limbo. If anyone knows what is going on please feel free to post in the comments section or tweet a comment.

After 9 Months Biden’s Space Policy Is Totally TBD, earlier post (3 Nov 2021)
“After the first deadline for the Space Council’s Users Advisory Group (UAG) membership solicitation came and went (low response rate apparently) they extended it another month. The new date was 29 October so, given the glacial pace that space policy moves these days, it will be next year before we find out who is on the UAG. And of course we’ll need to see when it meets and whether it will be yet another space policy Potemkin village with no real responsibilities. And when it comes to OSTP and NSC there’s nothing but crickets there.”

National Space Council Meeting Update, earlier post (1 Dec 2021)
“On Wednesday, December 1 at 1:30pm EST, Vice President Kamala Harris will convene the Biden-Harris Administration’s inaugural National Space Council meeting at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C. The Vice President, who chairs the National Space Council, will deliver remarks laying out the Administration’s whole-of-government approach to ensuring that space activities create opportunities that benefit the American people and the world. … In conjunction with the meeting, President Joe Biden will sign a new Executive Order on Wednesday, December 1 that addresses the membership, duties, and responsibilities of the Council.”

Space Team Biden Needs To Get The Space Council Thing Right The Very First Time, earlier post (14 Nov 2021)
“If the value of space, as put forth by this Administration, is not instantly obvious – and pre-briefed to cynical media/stake holders in advance – then the whole NSpC effort – and the Biden/Harris Administration’s chances of doing something valuable in space – will evaporate before they even start. There are really no second chances to get things right in DC any more.”

United States Space Priorities Framework
“We are in a historic moment: space activities are rapidly accelerating, resulting in new opportunities in multiple sectors of society, as well as new challenges to U.S. space leadership, global space governance, the sustainability of the space environment, and safe and secure space operations. Burgeoning U.S. space activities are a source of American strength at home and abroad – from providing tangible economic and societal benefits to Americans to expanding our network of alliances and partnerships.”
National Space Council’s Chirag Parikh Says The Right Things
Actors Were Hired To Promote The Whole VP Space Thing
The National Space Council Meeting That No One Is Talking About
Sleepwalking Through Space Policy At NASA

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

3 responses to “Does Anyone Know Where The National Space Council Is Hiding? (Re-Repost)”

  1. Winner says:
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    Cloaking-device-won’t-turn-off!

  2. SpikeTheHobbitMage says:
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    Maybe nothing is happening because even with the extension nobody signed up? It would be kinda sad if UAG is defunct due to lack of interest, but if even NAC is being ignored then there might not be much point in continuing it.

    • fcrary says:
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      You’re thinking of the National Space Council, not the NASA Advisory Council. The former is a policy making group with the Vice President as chair, heads of relevant government agencies and departments as members, advice from a users group, and most of the actual work done by the staff. The NASA Advisory Council is a congressionally-mandated group of outside experts who review NASA’s activities and make recommendations about doing things differently. NASA doesn’t have to follow those recommendations, but they do have to officially respond to them.