WASHINGTON – The space community likely has a few more months to wait before it gets an idea of what U.S. space policy under the Donald Trump administration may look like, a top aerospace analyst said Jan. 25.
“The first big milestone that we’ll see may well be the release of the administration’s first budget omnibus, which we will see sometime in the spring. That’s going to be significant,” said Carissa Christensen, co-founder of The Tauri Group, an analytic consulting firm that pays close attention to the space sector and has contracts with NASA and the Defense Department.
The consensus among budget watchers in Washington is that the end of March is the earliest the new administration is likely to release its first budget proposal. That will be the first opportunity everyone has to see just what space programs the White House considers priorities — and which ones it could do without.
“We don’t yet know all that much about the new administration’s space priorities,” Christensen said at a breakfast here hosted by the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. “Although I think there have been some sign posts.”
She pointed to Trump’s repeated comments that he wants to bolster the U.S. military, and Pentagon officials’ increasing concern about Russian and Chinese threats in space. Milspace is likely to see a funding increase, and contracting opportunities for the private sector could follow.
“We as a nation are incredibly reliant for our defense on space,” Christensen said.
by Phillip Swarts — January 26, 2017
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