Trump likely to axe space council after SpaceX lobbying, sources say

WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump’s new administration is likely to do away with the White House’s National Space Council, a Cabinet policy panel that lobbyists at Mr Elon Musk’s SpaceX have been pushing to axe, according to three people familiar with the plans.

Mr Trump’s aides and SpaceX’s top lobbyist Mat Dunn in recent months have told associates they see the space council as a “waste of time”, according to the sources, stirring doubts about its fate and whether Vice-President J.D. Vance would have an interest in chairing it as required by law.

Following Mr Trump’s election victory, his team did not contact the space council, chaired by Ms Kamala Harris, as it did with Nasa and other agencies over transition plans, one of the sources said.

The council’s staff offices near the White House have mostly been emptied, the source said.

Mr Dunn, SpaceX and the heads of former President Joe Biden’s space council did not respond to requests for comment.

The White House’s website for the council on Jan 21 appeared unavailable, displaying only a “404 page not found” message.

No official decision has been made yet on the council’s fate, two of the sources said.

Its demise would be an early indication of SpaceX’s influence over space policy under Mr Trump.

Mr Musk, SpaceX’s CEO who

spent a quarter of a billion dollars to help Mr Trump

back in the White House, has maintained close proximity with the president and united with him on plans to send missions to Mars during his second term.

Mr Trump in December named Mr Jared Isaacman, a Mr Musk associate and long-time customer of SpaceX, to lead Nasa.

In November,

Mr Trump joined Mr Musk in SpaceX’s Texas mission control

for the company’s sixth Starship test launch, wooed by a Mars-tailored rocket that could play a role in potential Mars missions.

Mr Biden’s administration kept the council, which hosted one public council meeting per year, as required, to focus largely on building international alliances and rules in space.

In 2023, the council released a proposal that frustrated the private space industry for seeking to implement “mission authorisation”, which would have resulted in greater US government supervision of corporate activity in space.

Mr Trump’s first administration in 2017 revived the space council, after it was disbanded in 1993, as a spearhead for the creation of the US Space Force and platform to launch policies such as returning humans to the moon and reforming commercial space launch regulations.

If the council is axed, two sources said, Mr Trump’s team would look to build on some of those space policy efforts from his first term while making good on a campaign promise to trim back federal bureaucracy, a key task handed to Mr Musk’s government efficiency team.

Views on the space council’s value fluctuate between presidential administrations, with some seeing it as duplicative of smaller space-focused White House offices while others believe it allows for quicker action on space priorities.

Ms Audrey Schaffer, former space policy chief on Mr Biden’s National Security Council, defended the space council’s role in an op-ed on Jan 20.

“Without a team dedicated to space policy,” Ms Schaffer said, “the sheer volume of issues White House staff must tackle on a daily basis quickly crowds out any space agenda.” REUTERS