SpaceX founder Elon Musk is known for outspoken and controversial statements on his social media site X, but he has taken a relatively restrained stance when it comes to U.S. space policy in recent years.
For example, he rarely criticized NASA or NASA’s overall goal of sending humans to the moon through the Artemis program. Rather, Musk, who has long favored Mars as a human destination, has been somewhat of a team player when it comes to the space agency’s moon-focused plans.
This makes sense from a financial perspective, as SpaceX has signed multibillion-dollar contracts to supply food, cargo and other logistics services to the planned Lunar Gateway in orbit, as well as to build a human landing system as part of the Artemis program. moon.
But privately, Musk has criticized NASA’s plans, suggesting the Artemis program is progressing too slowly and is too dependent on contractors pursuing more costly government contracts and uninterested in delivering results.
No more silence about policy
Over the past 10 days, Musk has begun airing some of these private thoughts publicly. For example, on Christmas Day Musk wrote on“The Artemis architecture is very inefficient because it is a work-maximizing program, not an outcome-maximizing program. We need something completely new.”
Then Thursday evening, he added this: “No, we’re going straight to Mars. The moon is in the way.”
This is a definitive statement that directly contradicts NASA’s plans to send a series of human missions to the lunar south pole later this decade and establish a sustainable operational base there through the Artemis program.
It would be one thing if Musk was just expressing his opinion as a private citizen. However, after playing a key role in the election of US President Donald Trump last year, Musk has assumed an important advisory role to the incoming administration. He was also partially responsible for naming private astronaut Jared Isaacman as NASA’s next administrator. Musk may not be directing U.S. space policy, but he certainly has a meaningful say in what happens next.
So what does this mean for Artemis?
The fate of Artemis is a critical issue not only for NASA, but also for the U.S. commercial space industry, the European Space Agency and other international partners joining the effort to return humans to the Moon. With Artemis, the United States is competing with China to establish a meaningful presence on the lunar surface.
Based on conversations with people involved in developing the Trump administration’s space policy, we can make an educated guess about how to interpret Musk’s comments. For example, none of them would agree with Musk’s claim that “the Artemis architecture is extremely inefficient” and that some changes are needed.
If so, the Artemis program probably won’t go away. Ultimately, the Trump administration was the first to create this program about five years ago. But it may not be well remembered that the first Trump White House pushed for more significant changes, including a “massive course correction” at NASA.
“I urge NASA to adopt new policies and embrace new ways of thinking.” Vice President Mike Pence at the time said: “If the current contractor cannot achieve this goal, we will find a contractor who will.” (Speaking of the Vice President, it is highly unlikely that the National Space Council will be reconstituted with J.D. Vance.)
