Which US President Really Killed NASA?

We explore space because we want to push the limits of what we know in the universe. We explore to expand humanity's reach, to gain a foothold to eventually become a multi-planetary species, while learning why our planet alone has life. Because it's really all about understanding if we're alone, right? No. In an idealized world, maybe. But in reality, no. Space is all about politics. For those of you new to the vintage space, welcome! I'm Amy, and for those of you who are regulars here, welcome back. Today we're going to be doing something a little different. We're going to do a deeper dive into the history of, and relationship between, space exploration and politics. Because you guys know me, I have thoughts about things like this. I'm going to put a disclaimer up front. We're doing the Coles Notes version. Consider this an overview, as a true, full deep dive would likely take up multiple books. And in fact, there are multiple books on the subject. I myself dive into the foundation of NASA in my first book, Breaking the Chains of Gravity, and look specifically at Lyndon Johnson's role in my second book, Fighting for Space. I'll have a full list of recommended reading at the end of the video if you do want to dive deeper into a specific era. So to understand why space is inextricably linked to politics, we have to start at the very beginning. In the mid-1950s, satellites and space exploration were largely fodder for science fiction. But a handful of international scientists knew the value that could be gained from bringing this technology into reality. In the United States and the Soviet Union, teams of scientists were working on launching satellites as part of the International Geophysical Year to study solar phenomena and their impact on the Earth's environment. On Friday, October 4, 1957, the Soviets got their first with Sputnik. The 184-pound beeping sphere became the first artificial satellite ever launched into orbit. Texas Senator and Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson was entertaining guests at his ranch that night when the news broke. After dinner, the group walked out into the Johnson's backyard and looked up at the sky. Though he couldn't see Sputnik overhead, LBJ could feel a change. Space exploration and rockets to the moon were no longer the stuff of science fiction. That once-distanced future was here, and victory belonged to the Soviet Union. Johnson knew America had no equivalent technology, so couldn't catch up. But he did see an opportunity to turn America's defeat into his own personal victory. If he could take charge of space policy and mold the nation's reaction to Sputnik, he might be able to launch himself to the presidency. LBJ thus began a campaign to control America's narrative in space. While Republican President in Office Eisenhower made public comments about America's Vanguard satellite program, it was Johnson who led an inquiry into how the Soviet Union got into space first. When Eisenhower, after consulting with his advisers, decided to create a new civilian space agency, his intention was to keep space from becoming a battleground in the Cold War. It was LBJ who introduced Senate Resolution 3606, also known as the National Aeronautics and Space Act, to Congress on July 29, 1958. Eisenhower had created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, but Johnson's actions had earned him the nickname of Mr. Space in the public eye. But things didn't go as planned for Johnson. Going into the 1960 election, he didn't have the support of the Democratic Party to be the presidential candidate, and ultimately found his way to the White House as the vice presidential candidate on Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy's presidential bid. Kennedy's platform leaned heavily on the perceived missile gap in space. He went head-to-head against Eisenhower's vice president, Richard Nixon, arguing that although Eisenhower had created NASA, it was his party that had left the United States second in space, trailing in what was fast becoming a new outlet of the Cold War. Kennedy won the election on promises that his Democratic administration would give space the full attention it deserved as an extension of national security and international relations. Kennedy's first few months in office put his space-based promises to the test. On April 12, the Soviets launched Yuri Gagarin into orbit, another first America didn't have the technical capacity to match. In a press conference later that day, Kennedy acknowledged that the United States was lagging and that addressing the technical disparity would take time. While that press conference was going on, Speaker Sam Rayburn presented House Resolution 6169 to the House of Representatives Committee on Science and Astronautics. This amendment to the National Aeronautics and Space Act installed VP Lyndon Johnson as the chairman of the Space Council. The new arrangement meant Kennedy could take all the credit if the space program succeeded and pass the blame to Johnson if things went wrong. Five days later, Kennedy was dealt another blow with the failed invasion at the Bay of Pigs in He needed a win. On April 20, he sent LBJ a note. Johnson's subsequent meetings with NASA and military brass determined that the only way for the U.S. to regain technical dominance through space was to take on a big, long-term program. The best option was going to the moon. Going to the moon with what became the Apollo program was effectively Kennedy picking an end in a race with the Soviets that neither nation could win so it leveled the playing field, while also making space a sort of Cold War battleground. And Kennedy also knew it was unlikely he'd be in office when Americans walked on the moon. The odds of getting to the moon before his two terms were over was small. Nevertheless, he committed to the goal on May 25 of 1961 before a joint session of Congress. Since early in my term, our efforts in space have been under review. With the advice of the Vice President, who is chairman of the National Space Council, we have examined where we are strong and where we are not, where we may succeed and where we may not. Now it is time to take longer strides, time for a great new American enterprise. I therefore ask the Congress, above and beyond the increases I have earlier requested for space activities, to provide the funds which are needed to meet the following national goals. First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal before this decade is out of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth. A little over a year into Apollo's development, Kennedy was starting to reconsider the program. As the price tag rose and the Cold War intensified with the Cuban Missile Crisis, he worried that his legacy would be the president who wasted millions of taxpayer dollars on a stupid program. He expressed his fears to NASA's then-administrator Jim Webb in a private meeting of November of 1962. A little under a year later, in September of 1963, he went so far as to suggest before the 18th UN General Assembly that Apollo should be canceled in favor of a joint lunar mission with the Soviet Union. Kennedy's assassination in November of 1963 sealed Apollo's fate. All of a sudden, the lunar landing wasn't just a presidential order. It took on a new facet of honoring the dream of a fallen president. It was political and social leveraging to keep America's fledgling space program moving forward, and seeing it come to fruition fell to LBJ, who assumed the presidency hours after Kennedy was killed. LBJ couldn't not fund Apollo. He couldn't let Kennedy's legacy die with him, and he was also so synonymous with space that defunding the program could be damaging to his own reputation. And so he supported Apollo through his first months in office, and again after winning the 1964 election against Republican nominee Barry Goldwater. Throughout his five years in office, Lyndon Johnson gave NASA the support it needed for the lunar landing. In 1965 and 1966, he approved the agency's largest-ever budgets of 4.31% and 4.41% of the U.S. national spending, respectively. As a point of reference, current spending sees about 8.5% of national spending going to education and less than 1% going to NASA. But by 1968, NASA's funding was starting to dwindle, and LBJ had decided against running for another full term in office. Opinions on why he gave up on the office he'd worked his whole life to occupy are divided, but it's certain that the demands of the presidency were weighing on him, not to mention ongoing civil rights protests, protests over the war in Vietnam, and some loss of support from his party. Space had been one of the biggest focuses of Johnson's presidency, and that commitment was suddenly uncertain when Republican candidate Richard Nixon won over Democratic candidate Hubert Humphrey in 1968. Johnson left office in January of 1969, just weeks after Apollo 8 saw the first humans to orbit the moon, which meant Nixon inherited a divided country in need of healing with a space program poised for greatness. Apollo 8 proved to be a bright spot in the tumultuous year that was 1968, the year marked with nationwide protests as well as the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy. That first lunar mission united the country, even if for a brief moment, and drew accolades from worldwide leaders. It was a powerful moment that showed Nixon just what he could gain from success in space. Nixon's first months in office saw Apollos 9 and 10 take the final steps towards the moon, while his team began laying the foundation to make the moon landings synonymous with Nixon's presidency, basically Nixonizing Apollo 11. His chief of staff, H.R. Bob Haldeman, and appointments secretary Dwight Chapin, both former admin, had the marketing background to make it happen. The Nixon team started injecting the president into as many mission-adjacent events as possible, considering all kinds of celebrations, from post-launch presidential receptions to post-flight gala dinners with the crew. In the end, Nixon got two of the events he was most keen on, a televised phone call with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin while they walked on the moon's surface, and being on board the recovery carrier to welcome all three men home. Nixon took great pride in Apollo 11's mission, and in particular felt his lunar phone call reflected the pride, power, and peace he wanted associated with his time in office. But his excitement over Apollo 11 didn't carry over into his post-Apollo support for NASA, because he looked at space differently than had his predecessors. Where both Kennedy and Johnson focused on space as a part of national security and international relations, Nixon's focus was on the domestic implications, applying space technologies to fixing problems on Earth, and using the space program to stimulate American education in science and technology. America's future in space was going to look very different than it had in the 1960s. Beginning in the mid-1960s under LBJ, NASA had begun laying the groundwork for its post-Apollo programming, namely the Apollo Extension System that was soon renamed the Apollo Applications Program. Funding was modest relative to Apollo, but rising. By 1970, AAP's funding had reached $308 million. It was a significant commitment to the future, but that same year, which only saw Apollo 13 fly to the moon, the Nixon administration made decisions that would shape America's next decade in space. NASA management presented the new president with various plans for post-Apollo programming. Then-Administrator Tom Paine was particularly passionate about starting another grand program, a sort of Apollo for the 1970s, as it were, that would see humans on Mars in the mid-to-late 1980s, as well as large space stations in Earth and lunar orbits. But Nixon, focused as he was on domestic and earthly applications for space technology, didn't think America needed or wanted another big, expensive program. Not only that, he'd already started cutting the budget of the space agency. The last three missions, Apollo's 18, 19, and 20, were canceled in 1970 as part of the discussions over the next phase for NASA. Some of the hardware from the canceled missions went to the Apollo Applications Program, which by this point was centered on the proof-of-concept space lab called Skylab. But this was never intended to be a long-term program. NASA management had bigger plans for a more permanent orbital outpost, one that came with a new vehicle described as a space shuttle, to transport crews and hardware between the ground and the station, and eventually another orbiting outpost at the moon. But Nixon didn't share NASA's conviction that a big commitment was needed. He ultimately approved the shuttle, but not the station, and began placing a higher priority on international cooperation in space. As a matter of interest, Nixon did promote and enable arguably the most significant international cooperative effort in space. In July of 1969, he sent his favorite astronaut, Frank Borman, to Russia to begin the talks that eventually led to the Apollo-Soyuz test project. Nixon made his official announcement for NASA's next phase on January 5, 1972. I have decided today that the United States should proceed at once with the development of an entirely new type of space transportation system designed to help transform the space frontier of the 1970s into familiar territory, easily accessible for human endeavor in the 1980s and 90s. This system will center on a space vehicle that can shuttle repeatedly from Earth to orbit and back. It will revolutionize transportation into near space by routinizing it. NASA, an organization that follows presidential directives, started planning. Other big dreams, like larger stations, plural, deep space human missions, Mars missions, and NERVA, the mammoth heavy-lift nuclear rocket, were all arguably casualties of the shuttle decision. The shuttle's development, however, was complicated. See, the shuttle wasn't just a NASA program. Rather, the U.S. Air Force and Department of Defense got into the program before long. The USAF added the requirement of launching from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, and the DoD set the size of the payload bay so the shuttle could also launch systems like spy satellites. This was actually an element of the program that drew Nixon to it in the first place. Sharing the development costs and promoting different purposes meant more than one agency would be backing the shuttle's frequent missions, bringing the costs down overall, and eventually, hopefully, seeing ordinary, though highly trained, people flying in space. For all its promises, however, there were limitations. The shuttle was restricted to low Earth orbit. It wasn't a spacecraft that could support missions to the moon or any other destinations with a crew on board, but it could launch deep space satellite missions. Nixon thus laid a foundation for a new era in space, and looking back at these early Nixon decisions as an historian, I see this as a pivotal moment. For Jack Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, NASA was an instrument of power, showing American supremacy over the Soviet Union. Richard Nixon, now without the benefit of space as an outlet of the Cold War, changed that rule, making NASA something firmly on a domestic level, much smaller and lower in importance than it had been in the first decade of its existence. Let the housekeeping begin. The shuttle proved to be as complex technically as it was politically, and it came to fruition under two presidents we don't often discuss when talking about space exploration, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. Neither was in office long. Ford served a truncated term after Nixon's resignation in 1974 over the Watergate scandal, and Carter only served one term after that. For his part, Ford was a strong supporter of both NASA and America's continued preeminence in space. As a member of the House of Representatives, he'd worked on helping establish earlier space policy, but while in office, he mainly made sure things ran smoothly. He kept the space shuttle funded and, most excitingly, happened to be sitting president during the Apollo-Soyuz mission, the symbolic end of the space race that saw Alexei Leonov and Tom Stafford shake hands in orbit, as well as the Viking spacecraft's landing on Mars. Carter came into office in 1977, and though he was the first Democrat since LBJ, he didn't attempt to bring back his party's penchant for big space programs and bigger ideas. We'll see as we keep going through this history that this actually marked a moment when the party's approach to space changed, but more on that later. Carter was sitting president when the twin Voyager spacecraft launched on their grand tours of the outer planets, a mission on the LBJ funding era. Overall, he wasn't too involved in or supportive of space exploration programs beyond keeping the shuttle funded, to a degree. When NASA presented a proposal for five shuttle orbiters, Carter approved four with, quote, structural spare parts for a fifth vehicle. Towards the end of the 1970s and the end of Carter's time in office, the shuttle was facing a ballooning budget as well as technical and scheduling problems. It was getting so bad, Carter considered canceling it outright, but he was advised against such a drastic measure. The program was so far into its development, and at that point it was the only system to launch certain satellites, including government payloads, that axing it wouldn't be a shrewd move. And so he maintained the program's funding, disappointed in the end that the first launch slipped to after his term would end. The first shuttle mission launched on April 12th, 1981, three months after Ronald Reagan took office and two weeks after he survived an assassination attempt. Reagan's remarks after the launch of STS-1, said directly to the crew, say a lot about his vision for space. Through you today, we feel as giants once again. Once again, we feel the surge of pride that comes from knowing we are first, and we are best, and we are so because we are free. The shuttle for Reagan was the embodiment of American greatness, and so too, by extension, was the space program that had and launched it. Reagan saw outer space as humanity's final frontier and America's space program as an opportunity for global leadership. Reagan, like Nixon before him, immediately reaped the benefits of being in office for a successful mission started and funded by his predecessors. He also quickly saw the power that supporting space exploration had for his reputation as president. When his administration started looking for places to cut the federal budget, he walled off NASA's space shuttle program to ensure it kept running at full level. But Reagan wanted more than just maintenance of the shuttle program. His transition team wanted more too. NASA sought to leverage Reagan's favorable impression of space. His transition team was, very interestingly, led by George Lowe, the same George Lowe who had worked for NASA since its inception in 1958, and so had been through the big funding of the Apollo era and the lower level that had seen the shuttle come to fruition. Lowe tried to leverage Reagan's interest in space into another big venture for America. He presented Reagan with the space station that Nixon hadn't approved, the one for the shuttle to, well, shuttle to and from. It was presented to Reagan as the foundation of America's next wave of expansion into space, a program built in the 1980s that would promote American exceptionalism into the 90s and beyond. Reagan liked the idea and also liked the idea of the shuttle being the only American system to launch satellites. This caused a problem for the other partners in the shuttle program. The DoD worried that a big new NASA program would divert attention from the shuttle, aka its one means for launching spy satellites. There was also pushback over the projected cost of the station that would surely divert other necessary public funds. Reagan pressed forward in light of these concerns, making a formal announcement of the station during his State of the Union address on January 25th, 1984. I said America's next frontier, and that's to develop that frontier. A sparkling economy spurs initiatives, sunrise industries, and makes older ones more competitive. Nowhere is this more important than our next frontier, space. Our progress in space, taking giant steps for all mankind, is a tribute to American teamwork and excellence. Our finest minds in government, industry, and academia have all pulled together, and we can be proud to say we are first, we are the best, and we are so because we're free. This presidential directive formally in placement, NASA could set up the Space Station Program Office, and within a year, Japan, Canada, and the European Space Agency had all signed a bilateral memorandum of understanding to participate in this program. The Challenger disaster in 1986 dealt Reagan a blow in terms of space development. The loss of seven astronauts and one orbiter brought a stoppage in launches and revealed a flaw in Reagan's plan to have the shuttle alone be America's way into space. The country was grounded, and Reagan was forced to change his earlier decision. Now he was disallowing launching commercial communications satellites on the shuttle, lest they be lost. Against the backdrop of the evolving and problematic shuttle program, production began on the space station. In 1988, Reagan named the station, fittingly for his vision, Freedom. By that point, it had gone through a fair number of design changes, many of which were motivated by the reduced shuttle flight rate in the wake of the Challenger disaster. We can't move past Reagan without talking about Star Wars, or more properly, the Strategic Defense Initiative. This was the famous, or perhaps infamous, call to build a space laser to take out Soviet spy satellites. Announced in 1983, this would have been a huge space undertaking, and NASA might have had a part to play in it, but it would have been a military program, so it doesn't fall under the banner of NASA and the space program. Reagan's vice president, George Bush, succeeded him into office in 1989. Within months, he presided over the 20th anniversary celebration of Apollo 11's lunar landing. He used the occasion to attempt to give NASA a new, big direction in space. He announced what became known as the Space Exploration Initiative, a long-range, continuing commitment to America's space program that was very much in the same vein as Reagan's view of space as part of America's international supremacy. He threw his support behind the Reagan-era space station, Freedom, but added to it. Now, Freedom was just the first step in going, quote, back to the moon, back to the future, and this time, back to stay. And then a journey into tomorrow, a journey to another planet, a manned mission to Mars. Why the moon and Mars? Quote, because it is humanity's destiny to strive, to seek, to find, and because it is America's destiny to lead. From the voyages of Columbus to the Oregon Trail, to the journey to the moon itself, history provides that we have never lost by pressing the limits of our frontiers. Bush's directive was designed to put America on a path to Mars, but the subsequent study into this mission came back with a $500 billion price tag, a staggering amount even spread over 20 or 30 years. The mission also failed to gain traction in light of political infighting with the Democratic majority in Congress. A feasibility study further revealed that, quote, NASA is currently overcommitted in terms of program obligations relative to resources available. In short, it is trying to do too much. Bush's Mars dream was basically DOA, but work on the station continued, and by the time Bill Clinton was president-elect at the end of 1992, things were looking more or less promising. There was a substantial amount of hardware built, and the international cooperation in space Reagan had promoted was coming to fruition. After years of competition, the United States and Russia were working together in space. The U.S. agreed to buy Russian Soyuz vehicles to serve as backup lifeboats for the space station and the Shuttle Mir program meant American astronauts aboard the shuttle could visit the Russian's orbiting space station. Space was starting to become a truly collaborative, international effort. When Clinton took office, he learned the station program was running behind schedule and over budget. It looked bad enough that he considered canceling it altogether in favor of addressing the more pressing economic recession left over from the Reagan administration. But he, like Carter before him, was advised against cancellation. There was enough hardware built and a lot of money sunk into the program that it would be more problematic to cancel it than to figure out a way forward. And so, in 1993, Clinton called for the station to be redesigned once again to reduce costs and include more international involvement. It would now include both American and Russian elements and was renamed, appropriately, the International Space Station. Clinton otherwise didn't place much emphasis on space. It just wasn't his priority program. While other areas of government saw their budgets increase over his eight years in office, NASA's budget decreased to the point that it struggled to carry out its assigned missions. This lower budget led to the faster, better, cheaper era of space exploration, which wasn't all bad. My favorite Mars rover, the proof-of-concept Sojourner, came out of that era. But I digress. Clinton did get to see the first pieces of the ISS launch into orbit in 1998. The Russian Zarya and the American Unity modules. The ISS was still starting to take shape when George W. Bush—we'll call him W to make the distinction between him and his dad—was elected in 2000. He inherited a booming economy from Clinton, which would theoretically allow him to do anything in space his predecessor had shied away from due to financial constraints. But right off the bat, his administration considered canceling the whole space station program on account of its rising cost and put it on probation. There was suddenly no guarantee it would get built, much to the ire of international partners. The International Space Station, the program designed to foster positive international relations, was risking breeding a lot of tensions. Then W was hit with two major national crises, the September 11th terrorist attacks in 2001 and the Columbia disaster in 2003. The Columbia Accident Investigation Report pointed to many things as the cause of the loss of seven astronauts when their orbiter broke up over Texas during reentry. To quote the Accident Investigation Report, We consider it unlikely that the accident was a random event. Rather, it was likely related in some degree to NASA's budgets, history, and program culture, as well as to the politics, compromises, and changing priorities of the democratic process. Foremost among the causes, though, was a, quote, failure of national leadership in not replacing the aging space shuttle and, more fundamentally, in not providing a strategic vision to guide U.S. civilian space activities. The final recommendation after the accident was that good leadership was needed to direct a change in culture. This became the catalyst for the W administration to provide that new leadership and strategic vision. W announced his plan on January 14, 2004, just ahead of beginning his second term in office. Central was his plan to, quote, implement a sustained and affordable human and robotic program to explore the solar system and beyond. In the past 30 years, no human being has set foot on another world. It is time for America to take the next steps. Today, I announce a new plan to explore space and extend a human presence across our solar system. Our first goal is to complete the International Space Station by 2010. We will finish what we have started. To meet this goal, we will return the space shuttle to flight as soon as possible. Consistent with safety concerns and the recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, the shuttle's chief purpose over the next several years will be to help finish assembly of the International Space Station. In 2010, the space shuttle, after nearly 30 years of duty, will be retired from service. Our second goal is to develop and test a new spacecraft, the Crew Exploration Vehicle, by 2008 and to conduct the first manned mission no later than 2014. The Crew Exploration Vehicle will be capable of ferrying astronauts and scientists to the space station after the shuttle is retired. But the main purpose of this spacecraft will be to carry astronauts beyond our orbit to other worlds. This will be the first spacecraft of its kind since the Apollo command module. Our third goal is to return to the moon by 2020 as the launching point for missions beyond. W wanted to see a human presence throughout the solar system with an emphasis on returning to the moon by 2020 and Mars shortly thereafter. But it wouldn't be going with the shuttle, not that the shuttle had the capacity to fly to the moon or to Mars. Remember, it was a low-earth orbital vehicle. After 2010, it would be replaced by a new human vehicle that could take crews to destinations beyond low-earth orbit. This presidential directive begat the Constellation Program. Plans were firmed up, and by 2006, it was centered around the Orion crew vehicle that would return Apollo-era functionality to America's space agency. But the changing of the guard in 2009 brought a change in policy. Barack Obama took office during the largest recession in recent years, right after the housing market crash of 2008. Looking to lift the country out of another bad spot, his administration's first pass at space policy, released on June 28, 2010, showed a change in vision. Quote, the policy articulates the president's commitment to reinvigorating U.S. leadership in space for the purposes of maintaining space as a stable and productive environment for the peaceful use of all nations. Obama recognized the importance of space as part of America's identity, as well as the importance of space systems in support of national and homeland security. He didn't, however, take space as an extension of America's dominance, taking a more financially conservative approach amid the other issues plaguing the nation. His approach to space focused on cooperation to lessen the load on NASA, and thus the U.S. government, cooperation with both international partners as well as the private sector, companies like SpaceX. Leadership for Obama was less about America alone and more about America as a leader working in tandem with other nations. America was to lead through collaboration and the responsible, peaceful exploration of space. Obama's vision didn't include the Constellation program, which at that point had been a $9 billion investment. The program, aimed at a lunar landing by 2020 and eventual Mars missions, his administration found in an early review of space activities was just not feasible within a realistic budget. It had been underfunded under W and beset by technical problems. So Obama canceled Constellation and threw his support instead behind commercial programs, looking to have private companies share the load of orbital missions for the International Space Station, which he funded through to 2020. The station now has support through 2025. He also pressed on with the scheduled cancellation of the shuttle program. Without any American access to orbit, NASA now had no choice but to lean into Obama's directive of international cooperation by buying seats on Soyuz flights for American astronauts. Obama's cancellation of a big American venture in favor of private industry, his administration argued, was, quote, not a change from the guiding principles of NASA. It makes America stronger. It enables us to draw more strongly on the ingenuity of the commercial sector and create deeper ties with our international partners. Nevertheless, the change in focus drew ire from diehard space fans. Many are wanting to ignore what good Obama did for the economy and how much he helped the nation at a very hard time, even ignoring his role in helping launch the new era of commercial space. They will simply say that he ruined spaceflight. Donald Trump was never subtle in his attacks on Barack Obama. And so it's not at all surprising that when he took office in 2017, he quickly reversed his predecessor's approach to space. His earliest notes on space policy marked a directional shift from Obama, with an America First stance that extended into space. His call was to, quote, lead an innovative and sustainable program of exploration with commercial and international partners. Beginning with missions beyond low Earth orbit, the United States will lead the return of humans to the moon for long-term exploration and utilization, followed by human missions to Mars and other destinations. In Trump's view, quote, our destiny beyond the Earth is not only a matter of national identity, but a matter of national security. He also said, quote, the United States is the best in space and our adversaries know it. Space is a key source of strategic advantage for the United States, and potential foreign adversaries are determined to restrict our access to it. Now, it's a little hard to characterize Trump's space policy, since it seems to be in flux. In March of 2018, he called for a strategy emphasizing peace in space through a strong national program. Part of that was his commitment to America's missions to the moon and Mars. Then in February of 2009, he flew in the face of that, as well as the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, by establishing the Space Force, a new military branch dealing with space. Like Reagan with SDI, we aren't going to look at Trump's Space Force as part of this discussion, since that doesn't really tie into NASA or space exploration, but rather increased military expenditures and presence. Besides, I put my ranty feelings on that one in a video a while ago. The link is right up here if you want to pause and watch that one. But again, I digress. On June 7th, 2019, Trump threw all that for a loop with a tweet. Quote, Just leaving that there. Earlier this year, he celebrated America's return to launches, with no mention that the SpaceX mission was an Obama-era program, with remarks emphasizing the country's exciting future in space. Think of that. And it is an honor to be delivering it. Today, as we gather in this special place to celebrate not only the launch of a new spacecraft, but also our nation's bold and triumphant return to the stars, it's a special day. Moments ago, the world bore witness to the flight of the first new manned U.S. spacecraft in nearly 40 years, since the Space Shuttle launched in 1981, a long time ago. I am thrilled to announce that the SpaceX Dragon capsule has successfully reached low Earth orbit, and that our astronauts are safe and sound. With this launch, the decades of lost years and little action are officially over. A new age of American ambition has now begun. Past leaders put the United States at the mercy of foreign nations to send our astronauts into orbit. Not anymore. NASA's budget has seen some increase under Trump, but his calls for lunar landings by 2024 are, frankly, completely unfeasible. And his idea of bypassing the Moon and just giving humans to Mars ASAP are similarly problematic. But it's not surprising to see him calling for big action in space. So here's where I'm going to editorialize quite a bit. There's a trend I see in all this that I hope some of you see too, and it has to do with so-called Kennedy moments, those moments when presidents make a grand proclamation in space in an attempt to cement their legacy. In 1961, Kennedy committed to the lunar landing knowing full well it wasn't something that could happen overnight, and he likely wouldn't be in office when the landings took place. And even though it was his decision to commit to the landing, he called to cancel it because he wasn't certain it would leave him with a positive legacy. But 50 years later, we look back and we only see the Moon landing pledge as a grand vision, and the actual lunar landings as the peak of American technological ingenuity. It's entirely unsurprising that a president would want to replicate that, especially since, with a large-scale goal like a lunar landing, the president who starts the program might not have to fund it all the way through to reap the benefits. Reagan did it with space station freedom. Bush did it with his call for a mission to Mars. W did it with the Constellation program. Trump did it with his call to go to the Moon and or Mars. A linking factor here, they're all modern-day Republicans whose vision of America is more or less in line with a vision debuted by Reagan in 1980 that sees American greatness linked to ostentatious goals and in space. This is in contrast to the Clinton and Obama approaches, as well as Ford and Carter, that saw reduced funding and a focus on international cooperation, an approach that, in space, meant slower but steadier advancements. The irony is that limited government spending is a central tenet of the Republican platform, but in the last 40 years, it's been Republican leadership that has called for grand space programs no matter how unrealistic. I'm going to posit that after the success of Apollo 11 and the Apollo program as a whole, success in space became something that was a great way to show America's preeminence, and the scale of these space programs comes down to an individual president's idea of the brand of America. So let's talk branding. The brand of America largely promotes the idea of freedom and economic stability rather than discussing unseemly issues of poverty or racism, but that changes president to president. Obama projected the image of an America defined by equality and a place where immigrants wanted to make a life, whereas Trump presents an America of closed borders and fanatic nationalism. We can say the brand of America is the vision of the country as a candidate presents and sells as part of his campaign, and America's space program is a big part of the image of America. It can convey so many things, from exploration and innovation, to culture and leadership, and in some cases, dominance. Reagan's vision for America was centered around the belief that the United States is the God-chosen nation and the last best hope of man on earth, what historian John Logsdon calls divinely guided American exceptionalism. He ran on the campaign slogan, let's make America great again, and part of that greatness was establishing a strong foothold for America in space with freedom. That space station was designed to be the platform for America's expansion into space for decades, cementing Reagan's legacy in the process. Bush followed a similar line. His kinder, gentler nation slogan held promises of softening Reagan's conservatism, but continuing in the same vein. W echoed his father's campaign and a vision for America that one political writer described as putting, quote, class back at the heart of U.S. politics. America was great, comma, for those who were already great. Both Bushes tried to cement their legacies with a mission to Mars, an achievement that would stand the test of time and endure as a show that their America was great because it had done something previously thought impossible. Trump's vision of America is very much wrapped up in his version of Reagan's slogan, make America great again. Greatness for Trump is, like it was for the Bushes, wrapped up in American exceptionalism, something exemplified as a big feat of American daring and ingenuity, something he'd like his America to stand for. And a moon or Mars landing does just that. He can say no one's done it in half a century, and if he does it again, his legacy will, he hopes, be as the president who achieved the height of American success none of his predecessors and no other nation could duplicate. The reality is one of America's biggest standard achievements and the one incredible thing it's done that no one else has managed is landing people on the moon. So for a president who wants to be known for greatness over other nations, that is the dream achievement. And it sounds a lot like the framework of Kennedy's call for the lunar landing in the first place. And I'll add that Kennedy's own campaign slogan for 1960 was a time for greatness. So you can see the ties to the Kennedy legacy, or rather how the Kennedy legacy would be inspiring. The difference lies in context. For Kennedy, might in space was a peaceful way to show might against the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Once that mission was done, the need for might in space was unnecessary. America had won. Post-Apollo, big programs in space were more about recapturing greatness. There was no urgency, not to mention going back to the moon is never going to be as exciting as the first time. And Mars is just such a different scale, and we haven't really had urgency to fast-track that goal. It's clear, to me at least, that the lack of support from one administration to the next is part of why we've been in low-earth orbit on the human side of things since 1972. At the end of the day, the modern Kennedy moments are a lot harder than Kennedy's original moment. Kennedy knew the moon was a far-off goal, but also knew it was feasible, and it was a nice round approach. Man, moon, decade. These are three things we know. We know what a human is, we can see the moon almost every day, and a decade is an understandable amount of time. Human, Mars, 30 years or so doesn't work as well. We still know the human, but few people really understand how far Mars is, not to mention the challenges of getting there. And it's incredibly hard to sell anyone on an idea that will take three decades to complete, not to mention a lot can change in 30 years. Take the shuttle. In 1981, Columbia was the cutting edge of spaceflight technology. In 2003, it was considered the lesser orbiter, older and heavier because it used antiquated materials. That design, frozen in 1981, couldn't endure. Long-term, open-ended programs in space are hard and need not only financial commitments, but political support that can survive changing parties in office, not to mention the changing nation and world politics that are arguably much more important than getting boots on Mars. So this many minutes later, what's the end point in all this? We want to have an idealized view of space exploration as an endeavor for all mankind, and diehard space fans are wont to follow any president who promises big visions in space. But space has almost always been leveraged for political gain, setting up big programs or attempting to for the sake of reputation, not for scientific return or furthering our reach into the solar system. Science should be the ultimate domain where humanity works together for a brighter future, but that's just not the case, at least not yet. Until presidents can commit to programs beyond their terms in office and stop leveraging space exploration for political gain, exploring our cosmic backyard will always be a politically loaded endeavor. The private sector might change things, but we can't forget private companies are looking to profit, which opens up a whole new world of reasons that space exploration will not be free of politics. All that said, at least we're getting somewhere. Maybe? Question mark? If you'd like to learn more on specific eras and presidents, here is a short reading list. I mentioned my own books earlier, Breaking the Chains of Gravity for a look at NASA's roots and Fighting for Space for an LBJ heavy dive into the early Apollo era. My go-to source for all things space policy is John Logsdon, who has multiple titles, John F. Kennedy and the Race for the Moon, After Apollo that's all about Nixon, and Ronald Reagan and the Space Frontier that, you guessed it, is all about Reagan. James Killian's Sputnik Scientists and Eisenhower is a really neat look at the early years too. Killian was Eisenhower's science advisor, so it's a very interesting first-hand look. And there are more, but those are some great ones and all the links will be in the description below. For more space and mid-century deep dives, be sure to subscribe right here and you can find me all over the internet, though Twitter is where I am most active with daily posts. I've also got a Patreon that gives you exclusive access to my Discord and YouTube members get that access too, so if you're keen to support the vintage space, those are two great options that help me keep making content. Thank you guys so much for hanging out with me this long and I'll see you next time.