Although the details remain in flux, the transfer team is investigating in and its activities began drafting potential executive orders for changes in space policy under the Trump Administration.

Sources familiar with the five-person team, which has spent the past six weeks assessing the space agency and its exploration plans, are careful to note that the teams are advisory in nature. They do not formally set policy nor do their work often indicate the direction the incoming presidential administration will take.

However, in an attempt to set clear goals for NASA and civil space policy, the ideas being considered reflect the Trump administration’s desire for “major changes” at NASA, both in terms of increasing the effectiveness and speed of its programs.

Not Business as Usual

The transition team grappled with an agency with multiple field centers—ten spread across the United States, as well as a formal headquarters in Washington, DC—and large, slow-moving programs that cost a lot of money and there is a slow delivery of results.

“It’s not going to be business as usual,” a person familiar with the group’s meetings said. The mindset that drives their deliberations is to focus on results and speed.

Donald Trump will be inaugurated as president for his second term less than a month from now, on January 20. On that day he is expected to sign a number of executive orders on the issues he campaigned on. This may include space policy, but is likely to wait until later in his presidency.

A source said the space transition team is working on ideas that Trump has discussed publicly, including his interest in Mars. For example, during a campaign speech this fall, Trump referenced SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who played a significant role during the campaign both in time and money, and his desire to settle Mars. .

“We are ahead of Russia and China in space… This is my plan, I will talk to Elon,” Trump said in September. “Elon took the rocket ships because we want to get to Mars before the end of my term, and we also want to have more military protection in space.”

Ideas to Consider

The transition team discussed possible elements of an executive order or other policy directives. They include:

• Establishing the goal of sending people to the Moon and Mars, by 2028
• The expensive Space Launch System rocket was canceled and the Orion spacecraft was possible
• Consolidation of Goddard Space Flight Center and Ames Research Center at Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama
• Retaining a small administrative presence in Washington, DC, but otherwise moving the headquarters to a field center
• Fast-tracking the Artemis lunar program to make it more efficient