Trump and Musk could completely change NASA

In two years, President-elect Donald Trump will be in the limelight for a number of significant events, including America’s 250th birthday and the 2026 World Cup. The fact that he is about to become only the second president in history to make a phone call to the moon, however, will probably be more sweet for him than any other.

For the first time since 1972, NASA’s Artemis mission is scheduled to send people back to the moon in September 2026. If it succeeds, it will be the result of years of dedication, creativity, and scientific effort—all of which NASA is renowned for globally.

However, analysts told Newsweek that NASA’s position may have changed by then. Trump’s remarkable recovery portends significant changes to the 66-year-old agency, such as a renewed emphasis on competing with China, America’s main adversary on Earth and in space, a far closer relationship with the private sector, and a drive toward Mars exploration.

Elon Musk, the billionaire businessman who, via his rocket firm SpaceX, is the face of contemporary space research, is standing at Trump’s side. When the president-elect accompanied Musk to see the launch of SpaceX’s Starship Rocket in Texas, Musk, who will serve as the head of the recently established Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), demonstrated his impressive accomplishments to Trump.

The space sector has changed under Musk’s direction at SpaceX, proving that private businesses can provide creative, affordable solutions more quickly than government initiatives. But in addition to possible conflicts of interest, his possible role in determining government policy in space also raises concerns about money, priorities, and his impact on NASA, an organization struggling with budgetary constraints and aging infrastructure.

NASA Budget Issues

Significant progress was made in space policy during Trump’s first term, including the 2017 start of the Artemis program, which aimed to send people back to the moon. Vice President Mike Pence, who served as chair of the National Space Council, and space policy specialist Scott Pace spearheaded this important project. Trump also said that one of his greatest accomplishments as president was the creation of the U.S. Space Force, the first new branch of the armed forces since 1947.

It was an example of a uniting vision for a president who is often seen as divisive. Trump’s success in space exploration during his first term, according to Casey Dreier, head of space policy at the Planetary Society, may be ascribed to the bipartisan backing he received.

“Space, fortunately, is one of the last remaining bastions of bipartisanship, something that the first Trump administration proved to be so,” Dreier said to Newsweek.

“A clear strategy to support the US space sector was the foundation of many of the Trump administration’s space policy achievements throughout its first term. In order to do this, the National Space Council spearheaded legislation aimed at generating chances to boost the competitiveness of the US space sector,” he told Newsweek.

Democratic leaders, including former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Senators Maria Cantwell, Jeanne Shaheen, and John Hickenlooper, joined Republicans in the Artemis program to create bipartisan support for sending people back to the moon.

It was also a vision motivated by clarity, according to P.J. Blount, an associate professor of space law at Durham University in the United Kingdom.

In the next years, NASA will need every bit of assistance possible. The U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released a harsh assessment in October called “NASA at a Crossroads,” which outlined a number of problems within the agency, such as outdated infrastructure, pressure to focus on short-term goals, and ineffective management techniques.

Modernizing aging infrastructure coincides with a more challenging period for the agency to get funds. After years of expansion, Congress reduced NASA’s budget by 2% last year. For a long time, the space agency has had to balance ambitious missions with limited funding. NASA expenditures may come under closer scrutiny during Trump’s second term, and Musk’s focus on cost-cutting and efficiency is probably going to have an impact on financial choices.

As co-leader of DOGE, Musk has already committed to finding $2 trillion in federal budget cuts, which he claims would guarantee that public dollars “are spent in a good way.”

Blount expressed disapproval of this strategy. “NASA already has a limited budget for its different missions. Musk may provide management and efficiency ideas, but his allegations of significant budget cuts are concerning for an organization that strikes a balance between research, public benefits, and human spaceflight,” he added.

NASA’s expensive Space Launch System (SLS), the foundation of the Artemis program, presents a significant cost-saving opportunity as well as a possible conflict of interest for Musk. The SLS is a single-use rocket that can only launch every two years and costs around $4.1 billion each launch. It made its debut in 2022 with the uncrewed Artemis 1 mission to the moon. On the other hand, SpaceX is attempting to get the price of a single Starship trip down to less than $10 million.

By 2026, the SLS is expected to send the crewed Orion spacecraft to the moon, however a recent audit found that the Orion crew capsule’s heat shield has problems that endanger the crew’s safety. This implies that Congress will likely closely monitor the SLS and the Artemis program’s overall architecture, and the White House may decide to forego the SLS in favor of the reusable rocket Starship for its Artemis program, despite NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free’s insistence that the current plans be maintained.

“That constancy in purpose is what we need. “That hasn’t happened since Apollo,” Free said in October at the von Braun Space Exploration Symposium of the American Astronautical Society.

“If we lose that, I believe we will fall apart and we will wander, and other people in this world will pass us by,” he said.

“NASA is a bipartisan agency,” NASA spokesman Cheryl Warner told Newsweek. We will work over the next several weeks and months to make sure the transition to the Trump Administration on January 20, 2025, goes smoothly. For the sake of everyone, the agency is still committed to its present course, which aims to expand our approach to exploring the Moon and Mars, new scientific findings, and advancements in space technology and aeronautics.”

SpaceX Will Gain

There are possibilities and difficulties associated with the possible Trump-Musk partnership at NASA. On the one hand, it may hasten the return of humans to the moon and the first landings on Mars, while simultaneously encouraging innovation via business collaborations. Conversely, it runs the danger of ignoring NASA’s scientific endeavors and consolidating power in the hands of commercial organizations.

Musk could end up becoming a bit of a double-edged sword for NASA as a result.

“There are serious concerns about whether the government is committed to a thriving space’market’ or if it would revert to monopolistic control over certain space operations if Musk obtains a large amount of influence in this policy process. Blount said that NASA should emphasize science-driven missions and social advantages in addition to acquiring services from private firms.

According to John Logsdon, who founded the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, “space was an area of policy stability during the first Trump administration,” SpacePolicyOnline said. “With Elon Musk likely in a position of influence, that is not likely to be the case this time around.”

Under Trump’s second term, Musk’s SpaceX is expected to play a bigger role, especially if SLS construction is put on hold.

According to Kani Sathasivam, an international relations professor at Salem State University, “SpaceX and other private companies have shown they can deliver faster, cheaper, and perhaps even safer solutions,” for Newsweek.

In order to send heavy equipment to the Moon by 2033, NASA has already requested that the firm and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin create cargo landers for its Artemis missions.

The partnership was announced by NASA’s assistant deputy associate administrator for the moon to Mars program, Stephen D. Creech. “Having two lunar lander providers with different approaches for crew and cargo landing capability provides mission flexibility while ensuring a regular cadence of moon landings for continued discovery and scientific opportunity,” Creech said.

However, there are worries that the incoming government would not enforce laws strictly enough for private space enterprises, which might result in monopolies for Musk’s company, even if public-private collaborations will undoubtedly increase chances for space research.

In another interview with Space.com, Dreier said, “It’s not unreasonable to think that there could be either money or regulatory regime lifted to benefit the pace of Starship development.” “Where Elon Musk will fall in terms of his influence within the Trump White House—it’s hard to extrapolate that,” Drier said, will ultimately determine how much Starship’s rules are loosened.

While he is in favor of a collaboration between NASA and private businesses, Sathasivam went on to say that it is imperative that NASA’s function as the spokesperson for American interests in space be maintained. “It is only NASA that ultimately carries the U.S. flag into space and represents national interests, particularly against state actors like China and Russia,” he said.

“It is possible to envision a U.S. space industry where NASA and private companies coexist, both advancing science and market-driven exploration,” Blount said.

Encouragement of Mars and Opposition to China

Musk said in 2015 that NASA’s sluggish progress in reaching Mars was the reason he founded SpaceX. “So when we went to the moon, we were supposed to have a base on the moon, we were supposed to send people to Mars and that stuff just didn’t happen,” he said.

Human exploration of the moon, followed by the Red Planet, seems to be at the heart of the Trump-Musk agenda for NASA. “That Elon Musk is his close adviser obviously increases the salience of space and Mars exploration in particular,” Drier stated.

Starship is already being developed by Musk’s SpaceX to carry passengers and goods to Mars and the Moon. The United States would thereby solidify its supremacy in space research if Starship were to play a significant part in delivering personnel and equipment to the Red Planet.

Critics counter that putting these large-scale initiatives first runs the danger of ignoring NASA’s research aims. Trump’s stance on Mars exploration, SpaceX, and Artemis may indicate that his government will give spaceflight initiatives more priority than other scientific endeavors.

“NASA shouldn’t be discussing traveling to the moon with all of the money we are spending; we already accomplished it fifty years ago. They need to concentrate on the far larger projects we are working on, such as science, defense, and Mars (of which the moon is a component). In 2019, Trump posted anything on X.

Durham University’s School of Government and International Affairs’ Bleddyn Bowen told Newsweek that a focus on Mars and space travel might come at the expense of “Earth and atmospheric sciences at Nasa and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which have been cut during the Biden era.”

Under Trump, space defense will continue to be a top focus. Trump has said that if reelected, he will establish a Space National Guard to bolster American military defenses in space. This proposal has been put up by Congress since 2021 but has not gained enough traction to be approved.

Trump’s space strategy, however, is probably going to focus on preserving American supremacy in spaceflight against China’s rapidly developing space program, which now has its own Starship. By 2030, the nation hopes to send humans to the moon, and over the following ten years, it will work with Russia to build a crewed lunar research outpost.

Ahead of the combined NASA-European Space Agency Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission, China has also expedited its timeframe for returning samples from Mars to Earth, perhaps as early as 2031.

Trump will be well aware of China’s increasing rivalry for Mars and is unlikely to allow China to set up its flag on the moon without opposition. Trump and Musk believe that improving the cooperative relationship between NASA and commercial firms like SpaceX is essential to the United States winning the next space race.