While President Donald J. Trump celebrated the first 100 days of his second term that began January 20 with a trip to Michigan, NASA today released a long litany of its own achievements during that same period. In his inaugural address, President Trump laid out a bold and ambitious vision for NASA’s future.
Trump outlined his vision for the American space program throughout his second term, saying, “We will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars.” According to NASA press secretary Bethany Stevens, NASA has spent the first 100 days in relentless pursuit of this goal, continually exploring, innovating, and inspiring for the benefit of humanity.
Stevens explained, “In just 100 days, under the bold leadership of President Trump and acting Administrator Janet Petro, NASA has continued to further American innovation in space. From expediting the return of American astronauts home after an extended stay aboard the state-of-the-art International Space Station, to bringing two new nations on as signatories of the Artemis Accords, to the historic SPHEREx mission launch that takes us one step closer to mapping the secrets of the universe, NASA continues to lead on the world stage. Here at NASA, we’re putting the America First agenda into play amongst the stars, ensuring the United States wins the space race at this critical juncture in time.
The tradition of evaluating the first 100 days of a president’s term had its genesis with President Franklin Roosevelt, who signed a dizzying array of legislation and executive orders in 1933 meant to alleviate the nation’s financial crisis and set in motion the New Deal. Ever since then, presidents have been measured against FDR’s “production.” However, in his second term, Trump has far outdistanced even FDR’s record pace, and has established a “hit the ground running” model for all his departments and agencies, including NASA.
Source: The American Presidency Project
Of NASA’s “First 100 Days” list of 53 achievements, some are related directly to the President’s goal of winning the new space race of landing humans on the Moon and Mars. These include preparing the hardware for the next Artemis mission (Artemis II) set to launch astronauts in orbit around the Moon next year, as well as commercial uncrewed spacecraft ( e.g., Blue Ghost) that have landed of the lunar surface in preparation for the eventual arrival of astronauts and establishing lunar habitat.
Other NASA accomplishments are aimed at Trumps’s broader America First agenda that seeks to establish the United States as the clear leader in all aspects of space exploration. Among these are milestones related to the International Space Station, private commercial space stations, and projects of NASA’s Science Directorate (e.g., Parker Solar Probe, Hubble Space Telescope, and OSIRIS-REx).
Despite NASA’s lengthy “First 100 days list,” the Agency is likely to be impacted by the same directives from the White House to cut spending and eliminate waste aimed at reducing the federal deficit. Some of the projects related to those 53 achievements may in fact be eliminated, judging by the preliminary NASA budget floated by the White House earlier this month. The Science Mission Directorate may see a cut of as much as 50%.
On the other hand, House and Senate members (especially Democrats) are likely fight to retain those programs that affect spending and jobs in their districts, handing the Administration more NASA budget than it wants, and undermining the President’s effort to reduce the bloated federal deficit.
During the April 9 Senate confirmation hearing for Jared Isaacman, Trump’s nominee to head NASA, it was clear that the fear of the Chinese beating the United States to the Moon and Mars was as much of a concern by Democrats as Republicans. While NASA is very unlikely to be allocated funding levels similar to that of the 1960s Space Race with the Soviet Union, any unforeseen achievements by the Chinese may cause Congress to throw money at NASA and add to NASA’s list of achievements in the next 100 days and beyond.
