Although the founder of SpaceX Elon Musk your social media site
For example, he has rarely criticized NASA or its overall goal of returning humans to the Moon through the Artemis program. Rather, Musk, who has long prioritized Mars as a destination for humans, has been more or less a team player when it comes to the space agency's moon-focused plans.
This can also be understood from a financial perspective spacex has contracts worth billions of dollars not only to build a human landing system as part of the Artemis program but also to supply food, cargo and other logistics services for a planned lunar gateway in orbit around the Moon.
But privately, Musk has been critical of NASA's plans, suggesting that the Artemis program is moving too slowly and relying too much on contractors who want government contracts more than cost and have less interest in delivering results. Keep.
I will no longer remain silent on policy
Over the past 10 days, Musk has begun to publicly air some of these private thoughts. For example, on Christmas Day, Musk wrote on X“The Artemis architecture is extremely inefficient, because it is a jobs-maximizing program, not an outcome-maximizing program. Need something completely new.”
Then, on Thursday evening, he added this: “No, we're going straight to Mars. The Moon is a distraction.”
These are definitive statements that directly contradict NASA's plans to send a series 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 simply expressing his opinion as a private citizen. But since playing a key role in the election of Donald Trump as the next president of the United States last year, Musk has taken on a key advisory role to the incoming administration. He was also partially responsible for the expected nomination of private astronaut Jared Isaacman to become the next Administrator of NASA. Although Musk isn't directing US space policy, he certainly has a meaningful say in what happens.
So what does this mean for Artemis?
The fate of Artemis is an important question not only for NASA but for the U.S. commercial space industry, the European Space Agency and other international partners aligned with the return of humans to the Moon. With Artemis, the United States is in competition 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 disagree with Musk's claim that “the Artemis architecture is extremely inefficient” and that some changes are necessary.
That said, the Artemis program probably won't die. After all, it was the first Trump administration that created the program nearly five years ago. However, it may be less well remembered that the earlier Trump White House had pushed for more significant changes, including “major reforms” at NASA.
“I call on NASA to adopt new policies and a new mindset.” Then Vice President Mike Pence said In May 2019. “If our current contractors cannot meet this objective, we will find people who will.” (Speaking of the Vice President, it is unlikely that the National Space Council will be reconstituted under J.D. Vance).