Speculation surrounds NASA’s Artemis missions amid the Trump administration’s potential shift in focus from lunar exploration to Mars. The unexpected retirement of advocate Jim Free and Boeing’s layoffs in the lunar rocket program raise concerns about Artemis’s future. Trump has suggested bypassing the Moon, with Elon Musk’s SpaceX as a key ally. Critics highlight the costly Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion crew capsule, advocating for reform over cancellation. While some expect Artemis to be restructured rather than scrapped, uncertainties remain about federal government downsizing’s impact on NASA and the implications for lunar exploration versus Mars missions.
Washington:
Is NASA still focused on the Moon, or will the next significant step take us directly to Mars?
There is growing speculation that the Trump administration might reduce or cancel NASA’s Artemis missions, particularly following the exit of a key official and Boeing’s plans to lay off hundreds of employees involved with its lunar rocket.
On Wednesday, NASA unexpectedly announced the retirement of long-serving associate administrator Jim Free, effective Saturday.
No explanation was provided for Free’s departure after three decades of service that led him to NASA’s highest civil-service position. Nevertheless, he was a staunch supporter of Artemis, which aims to return humans to the Moon, establish a permanent presence, and use that experience to facilitate a Mars mission.
Even though Artemis was originally planned during President Donald Trump’s first term, he has suggested the idea of bypassing the Moon in favor of Mars — a concept that is gaining momentum as Elon Musk, the wealthiest individual and owner of SpaceX, becomes a prominent ally and advisor.
Musk’s SpaceX, created to advance humanity’s goal of becoming a multiplanetary species, is investing heavily in its Starship rocket prototype for a potential Mars mission.
Trump has also appointed private astronaut and e-payment mogul Jared Isaacman, a close associate of Musk who has gone to space with SpaceX on two occasions, as his next NASA chief.
This month, Boeing informed its employees that it might cut 400 jobs from the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket program to “align with changes to the Artemis program and cost expectations.”
“This will necessitate 60-day notices of involuntary layoffs to be issued to affected employees in the coming weeks, as mandated by the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act,” the aerospace giant communicated to AFP.
Boeing “recognized the situation,” stated Keith Cowing, a former NASA scientist and founder of NASA Watch, in comments to AFP.
To date, SLS has completed only one mission — the uncrewed Artemis 1 in 2022 — and has become exceedingly expensive. Cowing suggested it is “likely to conduct only one or two missions, or they could cancel it entirely.”
– Reform or scrap? –
Doubt about the extremely costly SLS and the Orion crew capsule, which has faced heat shield problems delaying future Artemis missions, is prevalent among space enthusiasts.
Nevertheless, many argue for reform rather than cancellation.
“We need to adhere to our current plan,” Free stated at an American Astronautical Society meeting in October.
“That doesn’t imply we can’t improve… but we should maintain our lunar destination from a human spaceflight perspective. Losing that would risk our progress and allow others to outpace us.”
Space policy analyst Laura Forczyk pointed out that Free was set to become NASA’s interim administrator before being passed over in favor of another official, Janet Petro.
She cautioned that abandoning the Moon would forfeit an essential testing ground for technologies necessary for a successful Mars mission.
While Musk has referred to Artemis as a “jobs-maximizing program,” asserting that “something entirely new is required,” the initiative enjoys substantial support from Congress.
It sustains tens of thousands of jobs in states like Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida, with backing from important Republicans, including Senator Ted Cruz.
Neglecting the Moon would also allow China to establish a presence on the lunar south pole with a planned crewed mission in 2030.
Forczyk believes that Artemis is more likely to undergo reform than be entirely scrapped, with SLS possibly limited to one or two launches before private entities — such as SpaceX or Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin — take over major responsibilities.
“However, the Trump administration is unpredictable, and we really cannot anticipate the decisions of Donald Trump or Musk,” she remarked to AFP.
Another uncertainty looming is how Trump’s broader initiative to reduce the size of the federal government might impact NASA.
A NASA spokeswoman informed AFP on Thursday that around five percent of the workforce had accepted a “deferred resignation” offer, allowing them to remain on administrative leave while still receiving pay until September.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)