Juno was a success—but there is precious little coming after it

It is, of course, no surprise that politicians will play at spin and historical revisionism—but it’s disappointing when scientists like Holdren do it. The Obama administration has a few successes to talk about with space policy, like its ardent support for SpaceX and other commercial companies that are lowering the cost of access to space. It should have just stuck to talking about that.

Aside from the laughable revisionism, I think this is what we have to get used to for the next decade. Our political system is increasingly incapable of supporting a thriving national space program. Congress battling the executive branch tooth and nail for Orion/SLS and the Europa mission is only the tip of the iceberg. Factor in the massive amounts of pork and governmental overhead…it runs away from you quickly.

Let’s look ahead at the two most likely candidates and see what’s in store for us in terms of national space policy. A Clinton administration would largely carry on the same policies as the Obama administration—less spending on NASA and related programs, and mere lip service1 to commercial space.

A Trump administration would be decidedly pro-commercial space. He’s already said he favors fixing our potholes instead of going to space, and commercial space is a way for him to show he’s pro-business and against large government spending. That is, unless he gets lured into another national space race against China.

  1. The real battles for commercial space programs are fought and won in Congress, as are most things regarding NASA. ↩︎