On Wednesday, Vice President Mike Pence held his last meeting of the National Space Council in Florida, using the opportunity to announce a list of NASA astronauts to be considered for future missions to the moon as part of NASA’s Artemis program.
Dubbed Artemis as a team – this cadre of astronauts includes 18 astronauts, some with past flight experience and some left to go into space. The list includes some notable names, such as Christina Koch and Jessica Merr, the two women who made history by doing the first All-Woman spacewalk. Two astronauts, Victor Glover and Kate Rubins, are currently aboard the International Space Station. Attended five of the 18 National Space Council meetings today at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida: Mir, Jessica Watkins, McClean of McClellan, Matthew Dominic and Jac Aqaba
No flight assignment has been made yet, it is not clear which of the nine women in the group will be selected first to fly to the moon – a goal that NASA has been pursuing since the creation of the Artemis program. And it is likely that the group will change, according to NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstein. “This is the first cadre of our Artemis astronauts,” he said at the meeting. “I want to be clear, there will be more.”
The meeting was not just focused on astronauts. Pence also announced that President Trump had introduced a new national space policy, which, through a 3-page document, outlined the president’s vision for the executive branch. “It emphasizes that space is crucial to our security and our lifestyles, and provides the basic principles for putting America first in space,” Pence said of the policy. The previous national space policy was issued in June 2010 under the Obama administration. Pence also announced today that the administration will rename two Air Force bases – Patrick Air Force Base and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The second base will also be named after leading pilot Chuck Yazer, who died on December 7 at the age of 97.
The astronaut’s announcement, in particular, is an interesting statement as the country prepares for a new administration. In the past, transitions have resulted in sudden changes in space policy. Under the Obama administration, NASA focused on placing people on Mars, but in 2017, President Trump signed a space policy directive giving NASA the task of returning people to the moon. Since then, NASA has been working hard to create a program to get astronauts to the lunar surface, using a combination of hardware that has been in development for a long time and a spacecraft that still needs to be built.
In 2019, Pence famously challenged NASA for its first lunar landing under the Artemis program by 2024, an incredibly ambitious deadline that would be difficult to meet. Bridensta has worked hard to secure additional funding, lobbying Congress to spend an 3.4 billion next year to help lunar lenders fund, which would take humans to the lunar surface. So far, legislators have enacted legislation that will partially fund these landlords, but they are reluctant to provide the full amount.
If President-elect Biden takes office in January, the future of the Artemis program is even more uncertain. None of the officials involved with the incoming Biden administration have given any indication of what the new president’s scope agenda will look like, especially with regard to the human research program.
But for now, NASA is still working towards its lunar target. The space launch system – a giant rocket the space agency plans to use to send people to the moon – is set to undergo key tests in Mississippi before its first crowned flight scheduled for late 2021. Early next year, NASA also plans to select two companies to move forward with creating new lunar landers. And now, NASA has a separate group of astronauts it can pick up when it’s time for people to fly to the moon again.
Putting all these pieces in place will make it more difficult for the new administration to cancel the Artemis program. But it is possible that some significant changes are still in store.
