Update November 23rd 2:30PM ET: When this story was originally reported on November 9th, Walker thought he might be on the NASA transition team. He has since told The Verge that he won’t be a team member, since he is a lobbyist, but that he hopes to play a role as an outside advisor. Trump still has yet to officially appoint members of the transition team for NASA.
It’s difficult to predict what a Donald Trump presidency will mean for the future of NASA. The newly elected commander in chief has said very little about his space policy plans throughout the course of his campaign. But Trump’s space advisors have made some things clear: they want the space program to focus more on human deep space exploration and less on researching the Earth and climate science. And the private spaceflight industry will continue to play a significant role in space policy moving forward.
“NASA should be focused primarily on deep space activities.”
These insights into Trump’s space policy come from a recent op-ed in Space News, written by Robert S. Walker, former chairman of the House Science Committee, and Peter Navarro, an economist and public policy expert. “NASA should be focused primarily on deep space activities rather than Earth-centric work that is better handled by other agencies,” the two wrote. “Human exploration of our entire Solar System by the end of this century should be NASA’s focus and goal.”