During the next few years, it is highly likely that a monumental event will happen again as it did in 1969 with the Apollo 11 mission. In that historic moment, President Richard Nixon congratulated astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin from the Oval Office as they took the first human steps on the moon. This experience hold potential to be repeated, as NASA’s Artemis II mission plans to circle the moon’s far side with a crew of four by November 2025. Followed by, Artemis III, which is aimed to become the first manned landing on the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972, targeted for as early as 2026.
Sean O’Keefe, the former NASA administrator from 2001 to 2005 and currently a professor at Syracuse University, anticipates goals of America’s future space exploration will continue to thrive, especially under the leadership of a driving force like Donald Trump. Having demonstrated a penchant for unpredictability, it remains to be seen what the future holds, but all indicators point towards a repeat of the Space successes of Trump’s first term. Expectedly, he will again look to steer the course of the crewed space program, which he salvaged from relative obscurity during his first term.
In the era of President George W. Bush, NASA aspired to return to the moon under the Constellation program. With the retirement of space shuttles in 2011, American astronauts had to rely on Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft for reaching the International Space Station, with tickets priced at over $90 million per seat. However, the game shifted significantly in 2014 when NASA joined hands with SpaceX and Boeing, investing $2.6 billion and $4.2 billion respectively, with the aim of independently launching astronauts once again from American ground.
The Trump era proved revolutionary for the space agency, with an impressive boost in funding. Over his first term, Trump increased NASA’s total budget by 10% – a jump from $20.90 billion to $22.63 billion. Moreover, Trump’s ambitious outlook led to the termination of the asteroid mission and the resurrection of manned moon exploration. Trump’s vision bore success when, on May 30, 2020, the inaugural SpaceX Crew Dragon jetted off, ferrying astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station.
On December 20, 2019, Trump further augmented the government’s space involvement by signing the National Defense Authorization Act. This act created the Space Force, the first addition to the U.S. armed forces in almost three-quarters of a century. Under the subsequent President Joe Biden, the Space Force budget swelled to $29 billion in 2024. To keep up with this rapid growth, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall hinted at an additional increase in the future.
Despite the apparent lull in space campaigning by Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, changes to NASA and the Space Force are highly anticipated. A hot topic currently is the consideration of a candidate to lead NASA, with growing speculation that the choice may hail from the industry instead of the government. With the Artemis lunar program still finding its footing and the significant costs attached to the Space Launch System moon rocket, it seems a probable route.
Pauling from previous administrations, former President George H.W. Bush had chosen an industry candidate, Daniel Goldin, to streamline and implement a ‘better-faster-cheaper’ initiative for the space agency. With the valuable connection between the U.S. government and Elon Musk’s SpaceX already established thanks to regular cargo and crew flights to the space station, involvement in Department of Defense payloads, and the selection of SpaceX’s Starship rocket for the Artemis lunar landing, it is speculated that Musk could play an integral role in the new federal agency announced by Trump on November 12.
For its second term, one of NASA’s key roles will be to manage unmanned spacecraft. The Sightings include the Perseverance Mars Rover, which took flight in 2020, and the Juno probe, which has been circling Jupiter since July 4, 2016. Another significant project is the Europa Clipper spacecraft, launched on October 14, 2024, and due to arrive at Jupiter in 2030.
The work of NASA under Trump’s leadership will also extend to the development of ion propulsion spacecraft, which use electrically charged xenon atoms to accelerate, rather than traditional chemical engines. Additionally, solar sails–which catalyze spacecraft with the power drawn from photons bouncing off a reflective sail–will be another focus.
Extraordinarily, Trump, a businessman with three presidential campaigns to his name, will be relying primarily on government entities like NASA and the Pentagon to usher in his grand space legacy. Although it’s the commercial sectors that construct the rockets, it’s ultimately the Washington authorities that sign the contracts, write the checks, and make all interstellar adventures possible.