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Although the founder of SpaceX Elon Musk known for his outspoken and controversial comments on the social media site X, he has been relatively reserved when it comes to US space policy in recent years.
For example, he rarely criticized NASA or its goal of returning humans to the moon through the Artemis program. Rather, Musk, who has long favored Mars as a human destination, has been more or less a team player when it comes to the space agency’s Moon-focused plans.
This is financially understandable SpaceX As part of the Artemis program, it has billions of dollars worth of contracts not only to build the Human Landing System, but also to provide food, cargo and other logistics services to the planned Lunar Gateway in orbit around the Moon.
But privately, Musk has criticized NASA’s plans, suggesting the Artemis Program is too slow and too dependent on contractors seeking government contracts with little interest in delivering results.
No More Voice in Politics
Over the past 10 days, Musk has begun to publicly air some of these personal thoughts. For example, Christmas Day Musk wrote in X“The Artemis architecture is extremely inefficient because it’s a jobs-increasing program, not a results-increasing program. Something completely new is needed.”
Then Thursday evening added this: “No, we’re going straight to Mars. The moon is a distraction.”
These are stark statements that directly contradict NASA’s plans to send a number of manned missions to the moon’s south pole later this decade and establish a permanent base of operations there with the Artemis program.
It would be one thing if Musk were just voicing his opinion as a private citizen. But as he played a key role in electing Donald Trump as the next president of the United States last year, Musk has taken on the role of an important adviser to the incoming administration. He was also partly responsible for the expected nomination of private astronaut Jared Isaacman to be the next administrator of NASA. While Musk doesn’t lead US space policy, he certainly has a meaningful say in what happens.
But what does this mean for Artemis?
The fate of Artemis is an important question not only for NASA, but also for the US commercial space industry, the European Space Agency and other international partners involved in returning humans to the Moon. With Artemis, the US is competing with China to establish a meaningful presence on the lunar surface.
Based on conversations with people involved in developing space policy for the Trump administration, I can make some educated guesses about how to interpret Musk’s comments. For example, none of these people would agree with Musk’s claim that “the Artemis architecture is extremely inefficient” and that some changes are necessary.
However, the Artemis program probably won’t go away. After all, it was the Trump administration that first created the program nearly five years ago. Less commonly remembered, however, is the first Trump White House that pushed for more significant changes at NASA, including a “major course correction.”
“I urge NASA to adopt new policies and adopt a new way of thinking” This was stated by the then Vice President Mike Pence In May 2019. “If our current contractors can’t meet that goal, then we’ll find them who will.” (Speaking of the vice president, it is unlikely that the National Space Council will be reorganized under JD Vance).
