WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump made a fleeting reference to human spaceflight in a speech before a joint session of Congress Feb. 28, even as his administration develops a budget proposal that could slash funding for NASA.
“American footprints on distant worlds are not too big a dream,” Trump said near the end of the hour-long Joint Address, one of several achievements he said were possible by 2026, the 250th anniversary of the nation’s independence. The line was the only reference to space in the full speech, which devoted more attention to topics ranging from immigration to healthcare.
The space community was anticipating the possibility of a more detailed discussion of space in the speech. A report earlier in the day, citing an unnamed senior administration official, claimed that Trump would “call for the return of manned space exploration” in the speech.
The additional details may have been a victim of last-minute changes to the speech. Politico reported March 1, also citing an unnamed senior administration official, that a section on “NASA and space travel” was dropped from the speech in order to keep the speech from running over an hour.
The line that Trump did deliver about space in the speech was tweeted by NASA, but not with a problem. An initial version of the tweet included the statement “See what’s next for NASA:” with a link to a page on NASA’s website titled “What’s Next For NASA.” That page, though, is dated July 12, 2016, prior to the current administration. The agency deleted the tweet and reposted it without the link to the document.
The speech, formally known as a “Joint Address” rather than the “State of the Union” speech traditionally given annually by presidents after their first year in office, is not the first time Trump has made a passing reference to space. In his inaugural address Jan. 20, he said, “We stand at the birth of a new millennium, ready to unlock the mysteries of space.”
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