Vice President Mike Pence who chairs the Space Counsel is expected to be in attendance when NASA and SpaceX send astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the ISS from the U.S. next week, and now President Trump has weighed in:
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President Trump issued an executive order on April 6 to encourage commercial companies to work with NASA and its Artemis program.
Specifically, the ordered denounced the Moon Treaty in an effort to ease concerns for international partners concerned with policy on the use of lunar resources.
Now the Trump administration appears to be going one step further with a new international agreement that not only doesn’t recognize but counters the Moon Treaty.
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President Trump signed a new executive order on Monday called “Encouraging International Support for the Recovery and Use of Space Resources.”
The goal of the policy, which is supported by NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, is to encourage commercial companies to participate in NASA’s Artemis program to return to the Moon and beyond.
The White House acknowledges international space policy uncertainty that it says has discouraged potential partners from working with NASA.
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