Trump is returning NASA to its glory days

Back in the day, I had the honor to speak with all 12 men who walked on the Moon — heroes, all.

While each was unique in their own way, they were all in agreement with regard to one critically important subject: that a president of the United States could make or break NASA.

All agreed that back on Sept. 12, 1962, during his now iconic speech at Rice University on the need for the U.S. to become the “preeminent spacefaring nation,” President John F. Kennedy made NASA.

“We mean to be a part of it — we mean to lead it,” said the young president. “For the eyes of the world now look into space, to the Moon and to the planets beyond, and we have vowed that we shall not see it governed by a hostile flag of conquest, but by a banner of freedom and peace. … For space science, like nuclear science and all technology, has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man, and only if the United States occupies a position of preeminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theater of war.”

More than six decades later, many people in and out of the space business believe that Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden combined to break NASA — Biden much more than Obama, in several ways.

While Obama simply had no interest in NASA and liked to pretend he was using part of what would have been the space agency’s budget for “education,” Biden — or more likely, as we are learning, his handlers — wanted to use NASA as a test bed for various identity politics and climate-change initiatives.

As I have stressed in the past, I don’t care what you look like or what you believe. If you are the most qualified for the job, you should get it. Period.

To that point, I have long believed that four-time Space Shuttle astronaut Eileen Collins is one of the greatest and most accomplished astronauts in NASA history. A history she added to by not only becoming the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle, but the first to command a Space Shuttle mission. How? Because she earned it thanks entirely to her exceptional real-world background in the Air Force as not only a multi-aircraft pilot, but as a test pilot. Collins’s background not only includes over 6,700 hours in Air Force jets and various aircraft, and over 36 days in space, but real-time problem solving to make the Space Shuttle safer.

A number of people — myself included — believe that President Trump should appoint her the first (non-acting) female administrator of NASA.

As of now, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy is serving as the interim administrator for NASA as well. To be sure, he is already making desperately needed improvements to the once proud agency decimated by Biden’s focus on identity politics, the proper use of pronouns and global warming. Duffy serves under Trump, a leader who surely hears the echoes of JFK’s warning and believes the U.S. must once again become the “preeminent spacefaring nation.”

Why? Because Kennedy — and now Trump — saw a reality ignored by many. He knew that once humans cut through Earth’s atmosphere into the vacuum of space, our flaws, greed, prejudices and military ambitions would not be left behind. Rather, they would be the catalyst to drive some into space.

Today, many believe that China — with its entirely military-controlled space program — is the “preeminent spacefaring nation.” China is targeting all our satellites in low and geosynchronous orbit. Satellites that control the fate of our military, our economy and our nation. The Chinese military is taking dead aim at the Moon and the helium-3 that litters its surface. The helium-3 isotope could provide a potentially limitless supply of safe, clean, green energy. Some experts estimate the Moon’s surface holds over 1 million metric tons of helium-3, and that just 25 metric tons could fuel America’s energy needs for a year.

China was beside itself in glee as Biden and his allies pushed NASA, our military, our defense contractors and our universities ever more “woke.” But China is smiling no more.

Trump is back in the White House and believes NASA should be focused on the national and economic security of America. The military leadership in China now sees a president who intends to double-down on Kennedy’s vow to make the U.S. the “preeminent spacefaring nation.”

NASA should never have been made into a plaything for the left. It is a national asset that must once again serve a nation in need. If not, China will eventually control all, from low-earth orbit to the surface of Mars.

Douglas MacKinnon is a former White House and Pentagon official.