Private space trips encouraged

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Vice President Mike Pence and his new space advisory council want U.S. private companies moving faster and farther into the cosmos, with the government easing restrictions on these 21st century pioneers.

The U.S. will get left behind, the National Space Council was warned Wednesday, if it doesn’t make it easier for companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin to set up shop in orbit around Earth and aim for the moon, Mars and beyond.

“Somewhere out there in space is a bright red Roadster going thousands of miles per hour, the fastest car in history. We had better keep up with it,” said Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, a member of the newly revived space council.

Thanks to “impressive events” like SpaceX’s test flight of its new Falcon Heavy rocket this month, which hoisted the Tesla sports car and its mannequin driver, “the United States is the leader in space once again,” Ross said.

Not only did the rocket send Elon Musk’s Roadster roaring toward Mars — Musk runs SpaceX as well as the electric car company — two of its first-stage boosters landed back at Cape Canaveral for further recycling.

“Very impressive, indeed,” Pence, the council’s chairman, told the crowd of more than 300 at Kennedy Space Center.

Besides the lucrative business of launching satellites, many of the nation’s aerospace companies are looking to capitalize with their own orbiting labs and tourist stops, asteroid mining camps, lunar bases and more.

Astronauts, aerospace leaders and NASA officials joined members of Congress and President Donald Trump’s Cabinet for this second meeting of the council. Two moonwalkers were on hand: Apollo 11’s Buzz Aldrin and Apollo 17’s Harrison Schmitt.

The Trump administration is pushing to get Americans back to the moon, a halfcentury after NASA’s Apollo heydays. The new budget proposal unveiled by the White House last week emphasizes lunar exploration, while urging NASA to turn the International Space Station over to private businesses in 2025.