Officials want space leader

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

Acrucial first step? Filling important leadership positions.

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

Still, experts say a re-formed National Space Council, defunct since1993, 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 onMars.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been working toward Mars for the last several years. In April, NASA unveiled its own plan to get astronauts to theRed 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 ofNASA.

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 speechwas full of promise, and now they have to come through with a moreconcrete 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 everythingwe do a lot easier.”

Others have been more critical speech.

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

“Iwant to see events with substance,” said Larson, nowassistant dean of theUniversity 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 whatNASAand the American private sector are doing right now.” of Pence’s