Pence says NASA’s best days are yet to come
During a visit to space center, vice president vows ‘we will forge this new era of Americans in space’
Vice President Mike Pence reiterated the Trump administration’s commitment to NASA on Thursday, saying the best days for Houston’s Johnson Space Center are yet to come.
“Johnson Space Center is a national treasure and all the men and women who work here are national assets,” Pence said during a speech in front of Johnson employees. Pence is chairman of the National Space Council, a group that coordinates policies among NASA and other agencies involved in space.
Pence visited the Houston center, home of the nation’s astronaut corps, on Thursday. He toured facilities including the center’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, a 6.2 million-gallon pool where astronauts train for space walks on the International Space Station. While there, he met veteran astronaut Suni Williams — tapped earlier this month as one of nine Americans to rocket to space on commercial vehicles — and 2017 astronaut candidates Loral O’Hara and Jonny
Kim.
Although Pence’s visit didn’t include any new policy announcements, center director Mark Geyer said it was great for the workforce to see the Trump administration’s commitment to their mission.
“The workforce is already dedicated, and they’ve done great things,” Geyer said. “But it’s great that [(Pence) spent the time to come here and talk to the workforce directly.”
The Houston center is where human space flight research and training take place. It had a budget of $4.5 billion in fiscal year 2017 and employs about 10,000 civil service and contract employees. It is also home to the international space station mission operations and the Orion program.
Pence contended that the Obama administration put NASA and human exploration on the back burner. That will not happen under Trump, he added.
“Frankly, we’ll never know the opportunities we missed and the progress we missed during that time, but let me promise all of you ... our administration will not repeat the mistakes of the past,” he said. “We will forge this new era of Americans in space.”
During his visit, Pence also visited with Apollo 17 astronaut Jack Schmitt, who in 1972 served on the last mission to touch the moon.
President Donald Trump’s administration plans to change that, Pence said.
Trump has a “new vision for space ... to push the nation farther and get there faster than ever before,” said Pence, a former Indiana governor and congressman. “And unlike prior administrations, we have a vision with the budget to match.”
Trump’s $19.9 billion NASA budget proposal for the coming fiscal year funnels billions of dollars to human exploration. It tasks the space agency with sending Americans around the moon in 2023, while also setting aside $504.2 million in the coming year to begin working on the foundation of a $2.7 billion Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway — essentially, a mini-space station orbiting the moon where astronauts could live and work.
Pence said Thursday he believes the U.S. can put an American on that mini-space station before the end of 2024.
The budget proposal still must be approved by Congress.
So, too, must the president’s plan for a “Space Force,” unveiled by Pence earlier this month. That plan would create a new military branch — the first in 70 years — with a group of elite warfighters, led by an “assistant secretary of defense for space,” a civilian position that would report to the defense secretary.
Congressional attitudes toward this plan have been mixed, with one Democratic senator calling it “silly and dangerous” and lamenting that Trump apparently “cannot be talked out of crazy ideas.” But Pence defended the plan.
“In this still new century we will create an armed service devoted solely to American security in space,” Pence said. “We will continue to work with both parties in Congress to provide authority and funding to stand up this new branch of military.”
In his speech, Pence also touched on the commercial crew program.
Earlier this month, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine visited Johnson to announce the nine people — Williams included — named as the country’s first commercial crew astronauts, making them the first astronauts to launch from American soil since 2011.
After NASA shuttered the space shuttle program in 2011, personnel have relied on Russia to transport our astronauts to the space station — a move that sets the U.S. back $81 million per seat.
The SpaceX and Boeing commercial spacecrafts will, hopefully put an end to that reliance. Both companies’ test flights currently are scheduled to happen in 2019, the same year the the U.S. arrangement with Russia is scheduled to end. NASA currently is working through contingency plans to ensure Americans have continuous access to the space station.
“Sadly, for more than seven years we’ve been forced to hitch a ride to space,” Pence said. “Those days are over. Soon — and very soon — American astronauts will return to space on American rockets launched from American soil.”