Will Elon Musk have the freedom to muck around at NASA and with space policy in general? It all depends whether VP-elect J.D. Vance is willing to step aside from what could be seen as a duplicative space policy role, as noted in The Conversation:
Vice-president-elect J.D. Vance will chair the National Space Council, which develops policy on civil, commercial, international and national security. Many of the first Trump administration’s space policy successes can be traced to the council. Given the influence Musk seems likely to have in the new administration, the National Space Council could be seen as duplicating or being in conflict with the objectives of SpaceX’s founder…So could the council become a casualty of these drives? If it survives, its future potential depends on who is named as the executive secretary, a position that has significant power.
The National Space Council, which is under the White House, has a web page stating that while the Council was established in 1989, it was dormant from 1993-2017. Hence, it was the last Trump administration that brought it back to life.
Is Trump willing to let it lay dormant again so that Mr. Musk can have even greater say in steering taxpayer funds into his pockets? We’ll see what happens, as Mr. Trump often quips.
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