Exclusive: Q&A with the VP – Politico

By JACQUELINE FELDSCHER

12/13/2019 07:00 AM EST

Updated 12/13/2019 12:24 PM EST

Vice President Mike Pence talks with POLITICO about the Space Force, the 2024 moon mission and what the National Space Council is focusing on in 2020

The White House wants to update the National Space Policy.

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The Space Force is closer to becoming a reality, but some worry it will make space more dangerous.

WELCOME TO POLITICO SPACE, our must-read briefing on the policies and personalities shaping the new space age in Washington and beyond. Email us at jklimas@politico.com, bbender@politico.com or dbrown@politico.com with tips, pitches and feedback, and find us on Twitter at @jacqklimas, @bryandbender and @dave_brown24. And dont forget to check out POLITICO's astropolitics page here for articles, Q&As, opinion and more.

HOW TO GET CONGRESS TO PAY FOR THE MOON MISSION? Thats a question we posed to Vice President Mike Pence earlier this week during a call. And in his answer, he didnt talk about about negotiating with Democrats or lobbying lawmakers. Pence, who also serves as chair of the National Space Council, believes that once the commercial crew program begins launching American astronauts from Kennedy Space Center in Florida early next year -- something that hasnt happened since the shuttle program ended in 2011 -- the excitement to explore farther will simply be too much to contain.

Honestly, I think that returning American astronauts to space on American rockets as we'll do early next year is going to fire the imagination of the American people again, Pence said, adding that the boom of entrepreneurial space startups is also driving a tremendous amount of excitement. We know that as we build that momentum, as we deliver those results, we're very confident that we're going to be able to enlist the support of Congress in the years ahead.

Is this overly optimistic? NASA will need between $20 and $30 billion over the next four years to get to the moon. But some key lawmakers, including the top House appropriator for NASA, have come out against accelerating the next crewed moon mission by four years, which they call a political stunt. And the American public so far has not been focused on space travel. Instead, a 2018 Pew Research poll found that 63 percent of people believe monitoring Earths climate should be NASAs top priority, compared to just 13 percent who said sending astronauts to the moon should be NASAs prime concern.

HAPPENING NEXT WEEK: Starliner test launch to ISS. The uncrewed launch of the Boeing capsule to the International Space Station planned for Friday, Dec. 20, marks a major step towards ending Americas reliance on Russia to get to space. The Starliner already conducted its pad abort test on Nov. 4, which showed that the spacecraft can power away from the rocket to keep astronauts safe in case of an accident. The uncrewed flight has multiple back updates in December in case something delays it, a NASA official told reporters Thursday in a conference call, including Dec. 21, 23 and 25.

SpaceX, which is designing the Crew Dragon capsule under the same commercial crew program in partnership with NASA, already flew its uncrewed test flight to the ISS on March 2. Its expected to conduct its in-flight abort test no earlier than Jan. 4.

A NEW NATIONAL SPACE STRATEGY? Adding the civil, commercial and national security changes the administration has made into the National Space Policy, which was last updated by the Obama administration in 2010, is one of the National Space Councils top priorities ahead of the 2020 election, a senior White House official told us.

Presidential policy is presidential policy until the president changes it, the official said. A lot of the 2010 document is perfectly fine, but weve made a lot of changes with the Space Force and commercial deregulation. . Its been 10 years, lets update the space policy. Thats probably the biggest left to do for this coming year before the election.

Updating the policy would also codify the goal to land humans on the moon in 2024. The 2010 version sets the goal of sending humans to an asteroid by 2025 and sending humans to orbit Mars by the mid-2030s.

SPACE FORCE GETS READY FOR LIFTOFF. The Senate next week will vote on the National Defense Authorization Act, which has already overwhelmingly passed the House and would establish a sixth branch of the military within the Air Force that has a singular focus on space. The White House celebrated Congress action but not everyone is convinced the Space Force is the best way to protect the nations satellites. In fact, it might make the problem worse, according to Laura Grego, a senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists global security program.

My big concern is that creating a bureaucracy whose focus is space will essentially create bureaucratic incentives to hype the threats and build new weapons to counter them, she told us. I think its set up so the incentives are for a much more militaristic approach.

Instead, Grego called for diplomacy to eliminate threats before the Pentagon is forced to respond -- an area where she sees the State Department exerting very little energy. She suggested a space code of conduct that contains rules and limits, like a prohibition of destroying satellites in orbit, as a good place to start. A similar draft document was considered during the Obama administration, but failed to win approval. In general, the U.S. has been in a reactive posture, she said. Someone proposes something and the U.S. is like, No, probably not, rather than saying, This is whats in our interest. Lets build consensus and advocate.

Asteroid Bennu | NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona/Lockheed Martin

LOCATION SELECTED FOR ASTEROID RETURN MISSION. NASA on Thursday announced that it has picked out a crater on the asteroid Bennu where the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx, mission can collect a sample to bring back to Earth. The crater in the asteroids northern hemisphere, nicknamed Nightingale, was the best choice of four sites considered. The smooth surface of the crater is well-maintained and could offer a pristine sample for scientists to study on Earth when the spacecraft returns in 2023, according to a NASA release.

But there are risks associated with the site, including a small area for the spacecraft to safely collect a sample and a large boulder that could threaten the spacecraft when it moves away. The spacecraft can make multiple sample attempts, but the site could become unusable for subsequent sample missions if the spacecraft has to abort on its first attempt, since the spacecrafts thrusters carrying it away from the surface would disturb the collection site, NASA said. OSIRIS-REx, which reached the asteroid Bennu on Dec. 31, 2018, will make its first attempt at collecting a sample in August.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK: Congratulations to Peter Klupar, the director of engineering for The Breakthrough Initiatives, for being the first to correctly answer that Gemini 7 orbited Earth for 13 days, 18 hours, 35 minutes.

This weeks question: The United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space was established 50 years ago on Dec. 12, 1959 with 24 members. How many members are on the committee today? First person to email the answer to jklimas@politico.com gets bragging rights and a shoutout in next weeks newsletter!

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What is the cost of the space tourism industry?

Blue Origin launches successful 12th test flight.

SpaceX cargo capsule delivered cannabis to the International Space Station.

A Swiss startup is development a robot to clear space debris.

The Air Forces Space Fence is almost ready for action.

The first Latina to go to space talks about getting more women interested in STEM.

NASA astronauts are testing Adidas shoes in space.

TODAY: The American Geophysical Unions annual meeting concludes in San Francisco.

FRIDAY: Boeings Starliner capsule is expected to launch to the International Space Station.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of POLITICO Space misstated the kind of test SpaceX would conduct with its Crew Dragon capsule early next year. It is an in-flight abort test.

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Exclusive: Q&A with the VP - Politico