Space Day

The first Friday in May is the unofficial Space Day or International Space Day. It was designed to excite, engage, and teach about all things space related. NASA is participating in a Space Day event at the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington (NASA 2019).

During the past presidential administration, under Barack Obama, our space exploration came to a screeching halt. NASA had Project Constellation in the planning stage which prevented the building of the Orion spacecraft and Ares rockets for new manned moon missions.

Obama had claimed the cost was too great. Instead, he diverted funding to the DOD and charged NASA with studies of heavy-lift rockets, deep-space propulsion, and other technologies as these things would make space exploration cheaper. It was obvious, the Obama administration never intended on sending astronauts anywhere (Whittington 2017).

With all of the troublesome issues Obama had concerning NASA, President Trump certainly had his work cut out for him.

In March, Trump released the budget planning which actually cut NASA’s spending budget by a half a million dollars. This was a result of the announcement that all non-defense, discretionary spending would face a 5 percent cut in the 2020 budget year. However, the cut NASA received was less than recommended. NASA stated the budget fully supports many of their plans (Stuckey 2019)

The Democrats would lead you to believe President Trump is opposed to NASA, and what it does by exaggerating the fact he cut the spending by a half a billion dollars.

What they don’t tell you, is NASA now has more available in their budget this year, then they’ve had for a decade. During the Obama administration, the most Obama requested for NASA spending was $18.5 billion.

President Trump requested 19.5 billion. However, Congress allocated more. What’s more, President Trump has encouraged private companies to work with NASA on many projects they’ve been doing which are overdue and over budget.

Trump plans to get us back on the moon by 2024. Unlike his predecessors, his plans for NASA are set to occur during his second term instead of so far in the future that he wouldn’t be president anymore. He feels America needs to remain first in space in this century; not the last.

NASA. Are You Ready for Space Day?. 2019.

Stuckey, Alex. Trump proposes $500 million cut to NASA as the agency aims for the moon. Chron. March 11, 2019.

Whittington, Mark R. How Barack Obama ruined NASA space exploration. The Hill. March 8, 2017.