President Trump Wants His Moonshot Without Paying for It

NASA’s topline budget will be flat for the foreseeable future — which means an effective decrease in real dollar funding for the agency. As a result, President Trump may see his Moon plans come crashing down to Earth.

In mid-December last year, Trump formally announced his administration’s decision to return NASA to the Moon by signing Space Policy Directive 1, an amendment to the 2010 National Space Policy. Echoing Vice President Mike Pence’s call to “renew” the United States’ half-century-old mission to the Moon at the first meeting of National Space Council only a few months earlier, the president joined a long history of commanders in chief setting major space goals from the Oval Office.