Space Council says NASA's exploration programs are on the right track

CHANTILLY, Virginia – Nearly five months after asking NASA to speed up its plans to send humans back to the surface of the moon, Vice President Mike Pence said on August 20 that the agency's efforts since then have been "on the right track".

Pence, who chaired the sixth meeting of the National Space Council since his re-establishment two years ago, has made no radical changes to civil space policy, as at the previous meeting on March 26 in Huntsville, Ala., When he had called NASA to land human beings at the south pole of the moon by five years ago.

Instead, Mr. Pence focused on NASA's progress on key elements of its exploration effort, known as the Artemis program, including the space launch system and the Orion spacecraft, as well as on NASA's plans, announced since the previous council meeting, to collaborate with the industry. develop lunar landing gear with human evaluation.

"The Artemis mission has already begun. We are well on our way to fulfilling NASA's Moon on Mars mission, "said Pence in his opening remarks at the meeting held at the Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Museum of Science and Technology. Air and space, with the space shuttle Discovery backdrop for the event.

"Our Moon-to-Mars mission is on the right track and America is again leading in the exploration of the human space," he said later in his speech.

At the main board meeting, NASA's Jim Bridenstine, who sits next to Pence, recalled the agency's progress in achieving its goals of exploring the human space in the world. the framework of programs such as SLS and the lunar portal. "Mr. Vice President, things have changed since March and we are moving quickly under you and President Trump," he said.

At this meeting, the focus was more on exceeding the mere human return on the moon to human missions on Mars. Since President Trump criticized in a tweet in June what he perceived as an excessive insistence on the return of a human lunar return, NASA has more visibly explained how the return to the moon can lead to missions. humans on Mars.

Trump has, in several speeches since then, mentioned that NASA would send humans to Mars, ignoring short-term plans to return to the moon. "In a program that has just started, very soon, American astronauts will plant our beautiful stars on the surface of Mars," Trump said in a speech on July 30 in Williamsburg, Virginia. NASA has not set a date for a human mission on Mars, although independent studies of such a mission are not feasible for the agency until the mid-2030s.

Pence discussed the President's comments during a passage in his speech on the importance of long-term stays on the moon and learning about the use of resources on the ground. "Once on the Moon, we will develop the technologies needed to live and prosper in a multi-month expedition to its South Pole," he said. "By using what we learn on the moon, we will bring closer to the day, as the president has said, that American astronauts will plant stars and stripes on the surface of Mars."

Bridenstine also linked the development of lunar exploration from Gateway to Mars. "It's also scalable," he said of the bridge. "It's an opportunity for us to take humans further into space than ever before in human history and, in fact, it's our boat to get to Mars."

In his address at the meeting, Bridenstine mentioned that he was in the White House a day earlier to inform the National Security Council of the agency's exploration plans. While he was there, Victoria Coates, a leading board director, brought a box of M & M candies in a box bearing the presidential seal.

"I said," What is it? ", He recalls. "And she said, M and M: Moon and Mars."

NASA "leaner"

While Pence has touted NASA's progress over the last few months, he has suggested to the agency to make changes to work more effectively.

"We will continue to transform NASA into a leaner, more accountable and agile organization," he said in his opening remarks. "Is not it, Jim?" Bridenstine nodded.

"We will make it easier than ever to recruit and retain the world's most brilliant scientists, engineers and managers, and we will achieve our goals and make a new American history in space," added Pence.

Pence did not explain these proposed changes. At the end of the two-hour meeting, he summarized a list of recommendations that he had presented to Council for approval. They included "specific deadlines for manpower reforms, acquisition rules, management and industrial base issues," he said. The recommendations also invite NASA to designate an office and submit a plan within the next 60 days for "a sustainable exploration of the lunar surface and the development of crewed missions on Mars".

The board approved the recommendations unanimously without discussion. The White House did not immediately release the full text of these recommendations.

Updates on Regulatory Reform

The National Space Council meeting also discussed ongoing efforts to revise regulations on commercial launching and remote sensing. The public comment period for a proposed regulatory notice for remote sensing commercial regulations ended in July, while the consultation period for a proposed regulatory notice for commercial launch and re-entry regulations was closed on August 19 .

"We have received many feedback from US companies in the rapidly changing and extremely competitive global remote sensing market," said Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross at the meeting. He stated that his department was working with the State Department and other agencies to review the submitted comments and incorporate them into a final version of the revised regulations for the licensing of remote sensing systems. commercial.

The final rule, he said, should come out this fall. "We think this work should be finished by the end of October," he said to the question of the Pence calendar. However, some industry players are skeptical about this timeline, given the number of industry comments and inter-agency debates on how to incorporate them.

The Department of Transport, through the Federal Aviation Administration, is now interested in comments on the launch license regulations, many of which criticized various aspects. "It's clear that the proposed rule is very interesting and raises a lot of questions," said Steven Bradbury, General Counsel for the department.

Bradbury said the FAA had met with a number of companies and organizations about the proposed settlement, including Blue Origin, Boeing, the Deep Space Exploration Coalition, Lockheed Martin, SpaceX, Alliance United Launch, Virgin Galactic and Virgin Orbit. These individual meetings took place in place of a broader public meeting on the proposed rules requested by many industry players.

"We will work hard over the next few months to address the concerns and consider revisions to improve the final rule," he said. "Our goal is to publish a final rule early in the fall of next year."