Trump’s tacky plans for our nation’s 250th Anniversary includes a tawdry “Gladiator” spectacle on the WH lawn with Mixed Martial Arts/Ultimate Fighters going at it and probably Championship Wrestling too. Might we see a ‘Steel Cage Match’ between Elon Musk wearing Space X branding and Jeff Bezos wearing Blue Origin? It’s now official that Trump wants to downgrade Space X, at least when it comes to landing U.S. Astronauts on the moon. It’s become increasingly clear that it’s unlikely NASA’s Artemis program will achieve that goal sometime in 2028. Hell, maybe not even by 2030 which is when China is on track to land their own people on the moon!
If you follow space exploration, I mean actually follow it instead of glancing at and laughing at Trump trying to cosplay Star Trek/Capt. Kirk talking about his shiny new “Space Force” he created there’s a lot to look at. For the record, Trump didn’t create anything. Space Command was a real, significant division of the U.S. Air Force (headquartered at Cheyenne Mountain along with NORAD) long ago. Back when Trump was a real-estate guy and failing at efforts to branch out. All Trump did was rebrand it. Period. Worse, instead of naming it Space Command and letting it have some dignity he named it Space Force because he probably that that sounded cool and ‘tougher.’ Oh well, that’s not the point of all this.
Trump probably, just like I and other boys (and more girls than we realized back when I was a kid) dreamed of being an astronaut. Back during the first space-race with the USSR it was a really big thing what NASA was doing with Project Apollo. Since I literally (the height limit was six feet tall) outgrew it that dream died before another dream most boys had of playing Major League Baseball. Normal folks recognize such dreams as fantasies, accept them as such and move on. I don’t think Trump who was a young adult during those years ever let go of them
Elon Musk had Space X in the driver’s seat with NASA before Trump entered politics and cemented it’s position as supreme during Trump’s first term. Back then the Bromance hadn’t developed but with all the money and attention being committed to getting back to the moon, and Musk’s true goal of skipping the moon and going to Mars he no doubt saw Trump as his ticket. Between being able to play on Trump’s ‘I couldda been an assstronaut’ delusions but more importantly the ability to help Trump engage in an epic bitcoin grift Musk and Trump became best buds.
As you know things soured between the two, and Musk is on the outside looking in these days. I don’t want to get bogged down on how the Bromance went wrong. What matters is that although Space X isn’t going anywhere as NASA (along with the DOD and Space ‘Force’) has become too dependent upon it for the foreseeable future. However, when it comes to the next moonshot, the landing of American astronauts on the moon again Musk and Space X are being shoved aside. I first saw some news blurbs about this last week but today it seems official, at least according to Futurism.
Their article makes it clear NASA (interim, of course) Administrator Sean Duffy is looking into how to toss aside Space X for the moon project and install Blue Origin in its place. In other words Trump, and let’s face it HE is behind all this is dumping Musk in favor of Jeff Bezos! Hence my earlier comment about a cage match on the WH lawn next summer. Musk had himself a lot of fun at Bezos’/Blue Origin’s expense when a thruster problem popped up on the latter’s first crewed flight to the space station. There was a fuel leakage from one of the thrusters that NASA properly wanted to take some time to evaluate. So did Blue Origin for that matter but they took the position it was safe to undock and bring the crew home. NASA kept hemming and hawing as fuel continued to ever so slowly leak.
I felt all along that Musk, who had developed WAY too much power with NASA was egging them on to delay the spacecraft’s return. Things went past the safe point and the crew was ‘stranded’ and crew changes for the ISS had to be shuffled. The two Blue Origin astronauts had to wait and wait until they could be “rescued” by Space X and Musk of course crowed about it. Just so you know, eventually the ‘troubled’ spacecraft was remotely undocked, brought back to earth and made a perfect landing. Had there been actual live astronauts on board they’d have been fine just as Blue Origin tried (and, thanks to Musk) failed to convince NASA.
While all this was going on and since Space X has been testing it’s launch vehicle that’s supposed to accomplish the moon landing. I’m sure you seen a spectacular series of failures of both static ground tests and actual launches. Yes, the last two attempts didn’t explode at least but they were sub-orbital flights that still didn’t meet all mission objectives. However to date Space X hasn’t gotten this biggest ever rocket to a point where it was safe to put human beings on top of it! They can’t even complete an earth orbit flight! So (stick with me here) Trump’s looking at the situation and thinking like anyone (including Musk) there’s no way in hell Musk’s going to get us to the point of landing on the moon in 2028, Maybe not even before 2020 but 2028 is what matters to Trump.
He had all these fantasies of outdoing Nixon, who I recall spoke with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin from the Oval Office during the first moonwalk in July, 1969. It was I might add an entirely appropriate thing to do but it was Nixon’s voice coming through the TV. The scenery, what we saw was from the surface of the moon itself. Trump I’m sure had visions of a broadcast in which the screen was filled more with HIM watching the astronauts on a TV screen than what THEY were seeing and broadcasting.
I don’t think there’s any doubt Trump, assuming he’s still breathing wants to stay in office after his term expires. One way or the others. However in his increasingly less lucid moments he realizes that come January 2029 someone else will be President. Worse, it might be a Democrat and no way in hell would he be allowed back into the WH he’s literally been defiling (Rose Garden? Gone. Big Ugly Ballroom from tearing down part of the WH where Trump would want to host a ‘moon landing party’? Plans to tear IT down and restore the historical structure would start being implemented the day after inauguration) and he’d be lucky to have OAN carry some lame-ass broadcast from Mar A Lago.
In other words, Trump is pissed. At Musk. Being petty and vindictive he’s going to stick it to Musk however he can, including and especially rubbing Musk’s nose in Jeff Bezos’/Blue Origin’s sh*t. Don’t forget, Bezos owns the once venerable Washington Post and it’s already on the way to becoming the ‘Bezos Bugle’, a print version of Fox News. So, speaking of actual real news we have Duffy basically proclaiming Space X isn’t getting the job done and he think Blue Origin will so he’s going to make that happen:
“I’m in the process of opening that contract up. I think we’ll see companies like Blue get involved, and maybe others,” he told Fox News during a televised interview on Monday. “We’re going to have a space race in regard to American companies competing to see who can actually get us back to the Moon first.”
It’s an astonishing twist, showing that NASA is growing wary of SpaceX and its enormous Starship spacecraft falling behind schedule. The rocket’s development has been mired in setbacks over the last couple of years, raising concerns among NASA officials that a Human Landing Systems variant may not be ready to deliver astronauts from the Moon’s orbit down to the surface as soon as 2027, as part of its Artemis 3 mission.
The linked article goes on to discuss something I’ve already mentioned. Just as Project Apollo was a space race with the USSR to see who could be first to land humans on the moon, we are currently engaged in a similar race with China. Not exactly the USSR but a communist, authoritarian regime nonetheless. It’s difficult to know how far along China actually is. Landing people on the moon (and getting them safely back home) is incredibly difficult in ways even many engineers don’t fully comprehend. Not to mention expensive as hell.
I also know that while it’s fun to make fun of Musk with all those rockets blowing up such testing failures are just part of the process. Whether it be an engine/booster strapped to the ground going boom, or a more complete rocket making a spectacular explosion in the sky where tons of people can see it both live and on TV it doesn’t matter if it’s here, China, Russia or the old USSR. That’s just how it goes. Sometimes all the kinks get worked out and a reliable rocket/launch vehicle emerges. The point is that it takes time and that there will be plenty of ‘failures’ along the way.
One of the issues many of us have had with Musk/Space X is the breakneck speed of launches/tests. It seems like there’s too big a rush to get to the next launch instead of the painstaking analysis needed to understand everything that cause a prior test to fail. I think Musk has fallen into that trap. PLUS, don’t forget his Mars obsession. If he’d had his way we’d have skipped the moon entirely and focused solely on getting to Mars. Most, including me think the combination of technology and medical issues for crew make any Mars landing decades away. But Musk has had Space X trying to do both the moon and Mars at the same time.
That I believe has caused the Artemis program to fall behind schedule. It’s far enough behind for the administration to start breaking huge contracts (with Musk) and giving another company a chance to take over:
“We’re going to have a space race in regard to American companies competing to see who can actually get us back to the moon first,” Duffy told Fox.
Duffy took direct aim at Musk’s SpaceX, saying that “they’re behind schedule, adding that the “president wants to make sure we beat the Chinese.”
I don’t think it’s a bad thing that Trump’s ordered Duffy to do this. It will light a fire under Musk for sure but I figure with adequate funds Blue Origin might win out in the end. However, it’s late 2025 and changing contractors at this point means no moon landing in 2028 and likely not even in 2030. What we do know for sure is it’s become apparent the chances of a 2028 landing while possible (if Space X were to cut back big on everything else and focus mostly on the moon) in reality they are between slim and none. Trump is major pissed off by this so he’s ordered Duffy to stick it to Musk.
Trumpty knows deep inside he’s not going to get his bigly ‘I’m a SPACE MAN’ moment and in typical fashion has lashed out. I close with this: Think about potential consequences. Musk holds huge, and vital defense contracts. Given the national security aspect of things and Trump’s unlimited power he will want to be careful with rich boy “I’m taking MY ball we’re playing with and going home” crap. However Trump has a soft spot Musk CAN kick. Money and influence with the “tech bros.” Trump would never have gotten a second term but for that and these guys and their assets are ‘mobile’ so to speak. Musk doesn’t have to convince all, or even most of them to make moves that put Trump (and the GOP) in the hurt locker.
Stay tuned folks. This could lead to a lot of interesting if tumultuous goings on. Not just with NASA but the economy and politics. Worse, you can be sure China is watching and likely already setting up ways to take advantage.
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NASA doesn’t have the money anymore
broke as a joke 😆