Action, not words, urged on space issues

Pence’s recent comments praised — up to a point

Vice President Mike Pence’s optimistic speech at Kennedy Space Center last week needs some muscle behind it, space industry experts and officials say.

A crucial first step? Filling important leadership positions.

NASA has been operating with an acting administrator and the administration without a national science adviser since President Donald Trump took office Jan. 20.

Still, experts say a re-formed National Space Council, defunct since 1993, and growing interest in private space efforts are reasons to be encouraged.

NASA “will continue to operate well, but what you want to do is put someone on the job permanently to create some stability,” Space Florida President and CEO Frank DiBello said.

In a speech at Kennedy Space Center last week, Pence said that the administration would usher in a “new era of American leadership in space,” saying astronauts launched from Florida would one day walk on Mars.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been work-

ing toward Mars for the last several years. In April, NASA unveiled its own plan to get astronauts to the Red Planet.

Pence leads the National Space Council, which Trump signed back into existence on June 30.

It’s an advisory body that traditionally has included several top administration officials, along with the director of NASA.

Since Trump’s election, Robert Lightfoot has served as NASA’s acting administrator. Trump has not appointed a science adviser. Lightfoot thanked Pence in a release and called for government, commercial and academic partnerships to push the space industry.

“Here [at KSC], of all places, we can see we’re not looking at an and/or proposition,” Lightfoot said, noting that universities could push innovation in the space industry.

DiBello gave Pence high marks for the speech but said further details would give NASA a road map, of sorts, to follow and for which to strive.

“The speech was full of promise, and now they have to come through with a more-concrete definition of their plans,” he said. “That would give NASA a charter that is visible and around which they can start to garner political support. That makes everything we do a lot easier.”

Others have been more critical of Pence’s speech.

Phil Larson, who served as a senior adviser to former President Barack Obama, said he was concerned that Pence didn’t share many details or plans for the space program.

“I want to see events with substance,” said Larson, now assistant dean of the University of Colorado’s College of Engineering and Applied Sciences and a former SpaceX spokesman.

Larson also disagreed with Pence’s suggestion during the speech that the U.S. had fallen behind in space exploration.

“With all due respect, we are far and away leading in space … ” he said. “To say we are going to lead in space again discredits a lot of what NASA and the American private sector are doing right now.”

Still, Larson said he liked that Pence and Trump appear to back commercial space programs alongside NASA.

“That’s good to hear, and it shows they could be embracing a commercial-friendly approach to space policy,” he said.

In the administration’s 2018 proposed budget, Trump included a $19.1 billion request for NASA, a slight drop from previous funding levels.

Sen. Bill Nelson in May praised NASA funding levels and said the money is necessary to compete in an evolving industry. He declined comment about Pence’s visit.

“What's happening at the Kennedy Space Center is it's being transformed into a commercial as well as government space port, into a busy, busy civil, military and commercial space port,” he said in early May on the Senate floor.

The fluctuations from administration to administration are not surprising, said Erik Seedhouse, an EmbryRiddle Aeronautical University associate professor considered an expert on Mars.

“At the end of the day, the government has to put their money where their mouths are,” he said, noting that competitors in China don’t have to deal with leadership changes.

“The fact Pence went there is a good thing,” he said. “It shows they are interested in NASA. But there were only so many details and no specific plans or a timetable, and no timetable for funding. I’m sure NASA was hoping for a little bit more.”

NASA regularly sends its science experiments to the International Space Station from Florida via SpaceX or competitor United Launch Alliance.

The two also vie for military satellite launches.

DiBello said he has been encouraged by Trump’s willingness to support a reliance on businesses rather than government agencies for launches.

“The good things I hear coming out of the administration’s early policy statements are that they will focus heavily on private industry and the private sector,” DiBello said. “That will be a very good thing for the industry.”