Trump administration considering major positive changes at NASA
According to a report two weeks ago by Eric Berger at Ars Technica and reviewed today by Mark Whittington at The Hill, the transition team for the Trump administration is reviewing a number of very major positive changes at NASA. The transition team has set up a five-person committee to review the following:
- canceling the costly Space Launch System rocket and possibly the Orion spacecraft
- Redesigning the entire Artemis program to make it more cost effective
- Set a new goal to put humans on the Moon by 2028
- consolidating three NASA centers into one to reduce overhead
- Reducing the size of NASA headquarters
The first two recommendations would be doing what I have been recommending since 2011. SLS is an over-priced boondoggle that is too cumbersome and expensive. It can never do the job of establishing a lunar base, NASA’s prime goal. The same applies to Orion, which NASA for years touted as an interplanetary spaceship, an utter lie. It is merely an overweight ascent/descent capsule, nothing more.
The third recommendation is mostly for photo op purposes, since it is unlikely a manned landing can occur that quick, especially if the entire Artemis program is redesigned, replacing NASA’s the SLS rocket with SpaceX’s Starship/Superheavy. At the same time, if Trump shuts down the FAA’s red tape, we might be seeing many test flights of this rocket in the next two years, accelerating its development considerably.
The last two recommendations match the only recommendation from my 2017 policy paper, Capitalism in Space [free pdf here] that NASA has not yet embraced. I had recommended NASA reduce its overhead and bureaucracy, since it widely known in the business that its many agencies do relatively little for their cost. The rumored proposal under consideration is to consolidate the Goddard center in Maryland, the Ames center in California with the Marshall center in Alabama, with the new combined center in Alabama.
Getting this done however remains difficult. The centers exist because elected officials want them in their states and congressional districts. Expect strong resistance in Congress.
That the Trump administration is considering it anyway suggests these big changes are coming, regardless. And if so, I say Hallelujah!
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
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3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
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According to a report two weeks ago by Eric Berger at Ars Technica and reviewed today by Mark Whittington at The Hill, the transition team for the Trump administration is reviewing a number of very major positive changes at NASA. The transition team has set up a five-person committee to review the following:
- canceling the costly Space Launch System rocket and possibly the Orion spacecraft
- Redesigning the entire Artemis program to make it more cost effective
- Set a new goal to put humans on the Moon by 2028
- consolidating three NASA centers into one to reduce overhead
- Reducing the size of NASA headquarters
The first two recommendations would be doing what I have been recommending since 2011. SLS is an over-priced boondoggle that is too cumbersome and expensive. It can never do the job of establishing a lunar base, NASA’s prime goal. The same applies to Orion, which NASA for years touted as an interplanetary spaceship, an utter lie. It is merely an overweight ascent/descent capsule, nothing more.
The third recommendation is mostly for photo op purposes, since it is unlikely a manned landing can occur that quick, especially if the entire Artemis program is redesigned, replacing NASA’s the SLS rocket with SpaceX’s Starship/Superheavy. At the same time, if Trump shuts down the FAA’s red tape, we might be seeing many test flights of this rocket in the next two years, accelerating its development considerably.
The last two recommendations match the only recommendation from my 2017 policy paper, Capitalism in Space [free pdf here] that NASA has not yet embraced. I had recommended NASA reduce its overhead and bureaucracy, since it widely known in the business that its many agencies do relatively little for their cost. The rumored proposal under consideration is to consolidate the Goddard center in Maryland, the Ames center in California with the Marshall center in Alabama, with the new combined center in Alabama.
Getting this done however remains difficult. The centers exist because elected officials want them in their states and congressional districts. Expect strong resistance in Congress.
That the Trump administration is considering it anyway suggests these big changes are coming, regardless. And if so, I say Hallelujah!
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
It appears that Payload today solved one mystery about the Trump NASA transition team — who these people are. Well – four of them, at least.
Quote:
https://payloadspace.com/meet-trumps-nasa-landing-team/?oly_enc_id=7021F3657790B2Q
Sounds promising. But we shall see. As you observe, Bob, Congress has to sign off on a lot of this, after all.
My only concern is point 3. Do not shackle SpaceX’s Mars plans with NASA processes and congressional shenanigans. That will only guarantee long and expensive delays. The only government involvement should be resolving planetary protection issues to clear the way for landings asap.
p.s. those planetary protection issues are going to be utterly weaponized against Musk in any case. I say Musk, not SpaceX, for a reason. He is now every much a despised figure on the Left as Trump ever was. Every planetary scientist, every science “influencer”, every science website and magazine, every Democrat lawmaker, along with the usual suspects in “the press”, will go full metal jacket against SpaceX Mars landings, robotic or crewed. I usually hate this phrase, but MARK MY WORDS. This issue will explode in the next couple of years.
Whittington got red-pilled about SLS and Orion some years ago but was still late to that particular party. And he still seems inclined to reflexively prefer the NASA status quo in most other ways. He appeals to “business as usual” and seems not to get that the Trump administration is going to be all about burning much of “business as usual” – DC-style – to the ground with NASA among the least of the targets for the torches.
If anything, the leaked list of “trial balloons” anent NASA is insufficiently radical rather than the opposite. If Ames and Goddard are to be on the chopping block, for example – and I have no objection to either being closed, especially Goddard – it seems odd that, say, Langley and Glenn are not also on the hit list. Glenn is in Ohio, though, from which a newly-minted Republican Senator and VP Vance also hail so perhaps there is not going to be an absolute end to “business as usual” after all.
And there are still-useful – and notably non-portable – aero and space test facilities at both Ames and the Plum Brook part of Glenn that should be preserved. The best approach is probably to find individual companies or multi-company consortia to take over future management, upgrade and maintenance of said facilities in a way analogous to what has been done at Stennis, Huntsville, KSC, Vandy and Canaveral.
The thing about potential Congressional resistance to actually shrinking the federal government is that the latter will never be accomplished if someone doesn’t walk firmly up to the former and deliver a punch straight to its face by way of opening the ball. My hope is that DOGE goes after pretty much every part of the federal establishment. Even a Congress uniformly hell-bent on preserving the status quo unchanged would find it impossible to defend the entire federal perimeter from penetrations and encroachments. And there are at least some members of the current Congress who will not be such impediments. That isn’t to say that certain aspects of the coming struggle won’t resemble a duel fought with cleavers in a dark cellar, but nothing much is to be gained by making anything other than a massive and comprehensive early assault.
“The rumored proposal under consideration is to consolidate the Goddard center in Maryland, the Ames center in California with the Marshall center in Alabama, with the new combined center in Alabama.”
I.e., shut down Goddard and Ames. Boom! Looks like Trump will take the decision on this and perhaps SLS / Orion away from Isaacman to let him have a clean start and get to work. Maybe a subtle nudge to Elon to get back to work too?
“Patrick Underwood”
“Every planetary scientist, every science “influencer”, every science website and magazine, every Democrat lawmaker, along with the usual suspects in “the press”, will go full metal jacket against SpaceX Mars landings, robotic or crewed.”
Even the President of my local Astronomy club is a Musk hater.
Musk haters are tedious, but many Tesla investors (of which I am one) do hope he doesn’t lose focus on Tesla, SpaceX, etc. as Musk is not a typical “suit” – he is a rock solid engineer deeply responsible for these companies’ innovations!
Nothing is so irritating as the Wall Street “analysts” who fail to do a decent job in financial advising on Tesla, and instead think it’s their job to help Dems crap on Musk!
One of my lefty relatives pontificated that if Musk wanted to help electrify the economy, he should concentrate on grid battery storage, not just EVs! I asked her if she had ever heard of MegaPac, to which she replied “What’s that?”! You’d get the same answer from many Wall Street “experts” too!
Goddard will never be shut down. That is DCs personal Space Center.
Probably has more real political clout than Alabama.
Other than political work, Goddard is pretty much out of the game. They spent so much time on James Webb that they didn’t think about what comes after. If they don’t have much work, shutting it down is easier.
Happens in business all the time. Offer transfers to Marshall and call it good.
I agree with you guys on Goddard fighting back.
I am surprised by Ames being added to that list. Now that I think about it, that is Pelosi’s backyard. I have been to Ames, and it will be a lot to move to Alabama. They have the world’s biggest wind tunnel, which will be fun to move, which I know they do a lot of hypersonic testing. Since it is in Silicon Valley, they have many joint projects with Google (their neighbor).
Since Ames absorbed the nearby field, the former Moffett Naval Air Station, what will happen to the land? Will it be made into a regional airport or converted into housing? Will Google buy it all?
Dick Eagleson, yes I seem to remember some real knock-down drag-outs between Whittington and e.g. Rand Simberg on sci.space. I am that old.
Can’t they keep the various centers open, but just force them to, you know, produce useful stuff? I’m sure if you replace Powerpoint-making bureaucrats with actual engineers, it can be done, and just as many voters are employed! :)
V-Man: Without a profit motive it won’t work. What the people at these government centers need to do is get real jobs, working for a real company building real products.
To pawn–I agree
This consolidation may put an even bigger target on MSFC ‘s back.
Space Twitter (Nyrath and people in that orbit) agrees on 1,2; thinks 3 unrealistic; hates 4 and is wait-and-see on 5.
The reason they hate 4 is because a lot of infrastructure is spread around these centers. Especially Ames.
Here’s Chris Combs: https://x.com/DrChrisCombs/status/1871585080222642474
I have always suspected other NASA centers hated MSFC–wanted to kill it and it alone.
Now it has blown up in their faces. Killing Ames to kill SLS–I call that madness. Goddard I have no use for –but I don’t want to see Ames go down with SLS.
That could be a poison pill. See, now California might all go pro SLS to save Ames.