Trump relaunches disbanded National Space Council

The Washington Post

President Donald Trump is bringing back the National Space Council, a group formed 60 years ago that is aimed at coordinating the nation’s activities beyond Earth. But with NASA still without an administrator, it’s not yet clear what this means for Mr. Trump’s vision for space exploration.

An executive order signed Friday appoints Vice President Mike Pence chairman of the resurrected advisory body, which will also include the secretaries of state, defense, commerce, transportation and homeland security; the NASA administrator; the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and several other government officials. The order also called for the creation of a “Users’ Advisory Group” composed of representatives from states and private industry.

“We’re going to lead again,” Mr. Trump said.“… The next great American frontier is space.”

Besides having not named a NASA administrator, the president has not yet appointed a director for the Office of Science and Technology Policy, who also is to sit on the council.

The National Space Council was first created during the Eisenhower administration, with the aim of making sure someone close to the president was coordinating national policy on space. After Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space in 1961, President John F. Kennedy asked the council to draft a report on where the U.S. stood in comparison. The council ultimately suggested setting a moon landing as a national goal, and soon after, Kennedy told a Texas crowd: “We choose to go to the moon in this decade.”

The council’s influence waned over the next few decades, and after a brief resurgence during the George H.W. Bush administration, it was ultimately disbanded.

The component agencies, especially NASA, tended to bristle at the council’s oversight, according to a history compiled by George Washington University space policy expert John Logsdon. Critics saw the council as adding an extra layer of bureaucracy to an already convoluted endeavor.

But proponents of the couincil’s revival say it could help coordinate the nation’s agenda in an increasingly complex environment. The commercial space sector has grown. And many critics have been frustrated by NASA’s seeming lack of direction in the past few decades.