Reaching Beyond the Stars

Reaching Beyond the Stars

Excerpt from Trump's America by New Gingrich

Perhaps more than any other initiative, President Trump's commitment to revive American leadership in space will have enormous, long-lasting outcomes that will help ensure the United States remains a global superpower for decades to come. Even more importantly, if the Trump administration can build on the emerging commercial launch systems Americans will lead people throughout the solar system and freedom will be the banner of space travel....

Thinking big and achieving big in American space exploration and commercialization will require a lot more drive, mental toughness, and determined implementation than anything we have seen in space since the Apollo program, which put us on the moon.

Unfortunately, the speed, creativity, risk-taking, and technological and managerial innovation born out of the Apollo period from 1961 to 1969 has been replaced by bureaucracies, lobbyists, entrenched old systems, and narrowly defined ways of thinking and measuring success.

Many of these old bureaucracies, old systems, and old interest groups are working overtime to redefine their activities to fit the Trump-Pence vision. In other words, they are trying to put new point jobs on 50-year-old cars and pitching them as new.

If the old guard succeeds, we will have another eight years of rope-a-dope with slow moving, expensive, safe bureaucratic activities that achieve very little.

Real change in American space activities will be controversial. It will stir up opposition from entrenched bureaucracies, large corporations, and congressional pork barrel vested interests. If you don't see or hear about this resistance, you can assumed it is because the old guard has successfully minimized the amount of change coming, and instead of thinking big, we are acting small.

Space program! Photo by Elena.

Meeting the Trump-Pence Standard

At the first meeting of the National Space Council, Vice President Pence outlined the following clear goals based on President Trump's directive:

1. Refocus America's space program toward human exploration and discovery – launching American astronauts beyond low-earth orbit for the fist time since 1972;

2. Establishing a renewed American presence on the moon to build a foundational system for space activities beyond earth's reach. The moon will be a stepping-stone, a training ground, a venue to strengthen our commercial and international partnerships as we refocus America's space program toward human space exploration;

3. From the moon as a foundation, America will be the first to bring mankind to Mars;

4. Renew America's commitment to creating the space technology to protect national security. America must be as dominant in space as it is on earth;

5. Promote regulatory, technological, and educational reforms to expand opportunities for American citizens and ensure that the U.S. Is at the forefront of economic development in outer space;

6. American industry must be the first to maintain a constant commercial human presence in low-earth orbit expanding the economy beyond the planet. We'll strengthen our economy, as we unlock new opportunities, new technologies, and new sources of prosperity;

7. We'll inspire our children to seek education in science, technology, engineering, and math.

8. Our nation will bring American values to this infinite frontier. We will renew the American spirit itself and rekindle our belief that America can accomplish anything.

If we insist on the scale of change these eight goals will require, we will have an amazingly dynamic and popular program in space by 2020. Furthermore, we will be poised to make even greater leaps during a second Trump-Pence administration.

A major key to succeeding in this effort is recognizing this level of advancement is vastly more complex than the Apollo program. Apollo was an engineering project with the full force of political-governmental support that could be managed by a bureaucracy with adequate resources. The Trump-Pence goals, on the other hand, require a series of cultural, political, economic, and technological changes that transcend any single bureaucracy or manageable, measurable system.

This new system requires fundamental shifts in virtually every current space-focused activity in our society.

Reaching beyond the stars. Illustration by Elena.