U.S. President-elect Joe Biden speaking to supporters at a community event at Sun City MacDonald Ranch in Henderson, Nevada. Image via Planetary Society / Gage Skidmore.
Shortly before 4 a.m. (12:00 UTC) last week (January 7, 2021), Congress confirmed Democrat Joe Biden as the winner of the U.S. presidential election. Vice President Mike Pence, who chairs the joint session, announced the bill, 306-232. Whatever your political leanings, if you’re a space aficionado, you watched closely during the Donald Trump administration as you supported NASA’s long-term goal of sending astronauts to Mars. And it saw our nation’s course change during Trump’s tenure toward a short-term goal of returning the next man and first woman to the moon in 2024, with the Artemis program. In general, under Donald Trump, the American gaze shifted more strongly toward human missions to the Moon and Mars. Will this approach continue under President Joe Biden? How can NASA wait to get out of Biden?
Here is a certain context. In 2017, Trump appointed Jim Bridenstine, an Oklahoma Republican congressman, to head NASA. Congress – and the scientific and space communities – were surprised because NASA is usually led by a scientist or a former astronaut or other expert in apolitical space. Bridenstine was finally confirmed by the Senate in April 2018, more than seven months after his appointment. Despite his lack of space or scientific background, in two years as NASA administrator he seemed to earn the respect of many. Immediately after the Biden election, however, in early November 2020, Bridenstine announced that he would resign.
More context. The wonderful missions in our solar system that we hear so much about: the much-loved fleet of Mars, the dramatic explosion of New Horizons past Pluto, the 13 years of Cassini on Saturn, and so on. robotics missions. Battlehorse missions to understand our own Earth and our sun are robotic missions. There has been an attempt for decades to balance the smaller robotic missions like these, which bear so much fruit, with the larger, more colorful and more expensive missions that humans could bring to the solar system. The decision to launch a Cassini or a New Horizons must be made decades in advance; in fact, some of the most visible and moving robotic missions of this century to date were the lifelong work of scientists begun during the last decades of the twentieth century. Why can’t we have both types of missions? Because? But it seems that in terms of the space program since it began in the late 1950s, the focus has shifted between human missions and robotic missions. This should only be taken into account.
How will the U.S. space program change with President Joe Biden? Biden is a well-known figure in many ways, has been for decades in the Senate and eight years as vice president of the Obama administration. But his plans for NASA and the US space program are less clear.
Biden’s campaign made few mentions of its space priorities, apart from a few statements made during the launch of Crew Dragon Demo 2 on May 30, 2020, NASA’s first launch of astronauts from American territory since 2011. Specifically, Biden wrote on his website:
As President, I look forward to leading a bold space program that will continue to send astronaut heroes to expand our scientific and exploration frontiers by investing in research and technology to help millions of people here on Earth.
The Democratic Party platform, a practical list of the Democratic Party’s goals for the next four years, was proposed to the 2020 Platform Committee at its meeting on July 27, 2020. Although it thoroughly stated national defense of health, economic growth, and racial equity, among other things, his only mention of the space program was condensed into a few lines. Although brief, it was considered promising in the opinion of John Logsdon, the founder of the George Washington University Institute for Space Policy. The Democratic platform not only supported NASA’s current plans, but also mentioned its priorities ranging from the development of science and technology to the continued operation of the International Space Station and the exploration of space. human space:
Democrats continue to support NASA and pledge to continue exploring and discovering space. We believe in continuing the spirit of discovery that has encouraged NASA’s exploration of human space, as well as scientific and medical research, technological innovation, and the educational mission that allows us to better understand our own planet and the our place in the universe. We will strengthen support for the role of the United States in space through our continued presence on the International Space Station, working in collaboration with the international community to continue scientific and medical innovation. We support NASA’s work to get Americans back to the moon and go further to Mars, taking the next step in exploring our solar system. Democrats also support strengthening NASA and the Earth and Atmospheric Administration’s Earth observation missions to better understand how climate change affects our home planet.
From what we can pick up, two important imminents changes It is likely.
First, a Biden administration could strengthen NASA and NOAA’s Earth observation capabilities, with the aim of better understanding climate change. Lori Garver, NASA’s deputy administrator during the Obama administration, was a keynote speaker at the SpaceVision 2020 convention on November 7 and 8, 2020. She said:
Managing the Earth’s capacity to sustain human life and biodiversity will likely, in my view, dominate a civilian space agenda for a Biden-Harris administration.
Second, while it supports a human return to the Moon, a Biden administration has made no specific mention of launch dates. The launch of humans to the moon in 2024 as part of the Artemis mission was the chronology of the Trump administration. It is speculated that the Biden administration will at least slow down the Artemis program, perhaps freeing up money for Earth science and other priorities elsewhere in the agency. On December 20, 2020, the two chambers of Congress of the U.S. government agreed on NASA’s final budget for fiscal year 2021. In the report accompanying the bill, Senate appropriators noted that the uncertainty that appears “makes it difficult to analyze the future impacts that will fund the accelerated mission of the moon will have on NASA’s other major missions.” Wendy Whitman Cobb, an associate professor of strategy and security studies at the U.S. Air Force School of Air and Space Studies, said
I don’t think Artemis is canceled. I also don’t think he will get more money than he is currently getting.
On November 10, the Biden administration announced the lists of the agency’s review teams that will be incorporated throughout the federal government to gather information and guide Biden administration planning. Garver, who led the Obama administration’s transition, commented:
Transition teams really come in to see how things are and make recommendations for the future.
NASA chief Jim Bridenstine spoke in December 2019, in front of the SLS baseline of the Artemis 1 mission. Days after Joe Biden’s November election, Bridenstine announced his resignation on January 20 of 2021. Who will replace him? Image via Wikimedia Commons.
One of the top priorities of Biden’s space focus will be the selection of a new NASA administrator. So far he has been quiet about his election, but there has been a lot of speculation about possible candidates. This list is dominated by women. For example, Pam Melroy, a former NASA astronaut who flew in three launch missions, is a likely choice. Other possibilities include Wanda Austin, former president and CEO of Aerospace Corporation, and Gretchen McClain, a former NASA official who later worked in the industry and served on the boards of several companies.
Earlier transitions suggest a new NASA administrator may not arrive until months after the Jan. 20 inauguration. After being inaugurated in January 2009, President Obama did not appoint Charlie Bolden as administrator (and Garver as deputy administrator) until May 2009; the Senate confirmed them in July. Bridenstine, despite emerging as the top candidate for the NASA administrator days after Trump won the November 2016 presidential election, was only nominated in September 2017.
Concept of the artist of an astronaut on the moon, looking back at the Earth, through NASA’s Artemis program.
In a nutshell: Democrat Joe Biden will be the next president of the United States. What plans do you have for NASA and the American space program? We predict an approach to Earth observation, especially that related to climate change. And we join many others in predicting that the goal of launching the next man and first woman to the moon in the Artemis program will be rolled back from 2024.
Read more from EarthSky: NASA announces 18 astronauts on its Artemis team
Via Platform of the Democratic Party
