National Space Council

The National Space Council is a body within the Executive Office of the President of the United States that was created in 1989 during the administration of George H.W. Bush, disbanded in 1993, and re-established in June 2017 by President Donald Trump. It is a modified version of the earlier National Aeronautics and Space Council (1958-1973).

National Aeronautics and Space Council (NASC)

1958 - 1973

Established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958, the NASC was chaired by the President of the United States (then Dwight Eisenhower). Other members included the Secretaries of State and Defense, the NASA Administrator, the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, plus up to four additional members (one from the federal government and up to three from private industry) chosen at the President's discretion.

The Council was allowed to employ a staff to be headed by a civilian executive secretary. Eisenhower did not use the NASC extensively during the remainder of his term, and recommended at the end of his last year in office, that it be abolished. He did not fill the post of executive secretary but named an acting secretary on loan from NASA. Shortly before assuming office, President-elect John F. Kennedy announced that he wanted his Vice President, Lyndon Johnson, to become chairman of the NASC, requiring an amendment to the Space Act.^[1]

Edward Cristy Welsh was the first executive secretary of the NASC, appointed in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy. Welsh, who as a legislative aide to Senator Stuart Symington (D-Missouri) helped draft the 1958 legislation that created NASA and the NASC, spent the 1960s as the principal advisor to the White House on space issues. He also assisted in the development of the legislation that created the Communications Satellite Corporation (COMSAT). After his retirement in 1969, he remained active as an advisor to NASA.

National Space Council

1989 - 1993

George H.W. Bush created the National Space Council by "Executive Order 12675". The Council was chaired by Vice President Dan Quayle and included the following members:

• The Secretary of State;
• The Secretary of the Treasury;
• The Secretary of Defense;
• The Secretary of Commerce;
• The Secretary of Transportation;
• The Director of the OMB;
• The Chief of Staff to the President;
• The Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs;
• The Assistant to the President for Science and Technology;
• The Director of Central Intelligence; and
• The Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Disbanding

On February 12, 1992, friction between the largely astronaut-based management at NASA and the National Space Council led to Richard Truly, then NASA Administrator and a former astronaut, being forced out. Truly was forced out after Vice President Quayle and the space council's executive director, Mark J. Albrecht, enlisted the aid of Samuel K. Skinner, the White House chief of staff, in urging Pres. Bush to remove Truly. Quayle and the council staff made the move because they felt Truly would impede a new plan to restructure and streamline many aspects of the space program, including the space agency administration.^[2]

In 1993, the Space Council was disbanded and its functions absorbed by the National Science and Technology Council.^[3]

In August 2008, when campaigning for president, Barack Obama promised to re-establish the National Aeronautics and Space Council.^[4] However, he completed two terms as president without having done so.^[5]

Revival

In October 2016, Bob Walker and Peter Navarro, two senior policy advisers to GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, wrote in an op-ed in SpaceNews that if elected, Trump would reinstitute a national space policy council headed by the vice president.^[6] In the first year of the Trump administration, Vice-President Mike Pence indicated that the space council would be re-established, and would have a significant involvement in the direction of America's activities in space.^[7] On June 30, 2017, President Trump signed an executive order for such a reestablishment.^{[8][9][10][11]}

The revived National Space Council consists of the following members: ^[12]

• Vice President of the United States, chair
• Secretary of State
• Secretary of Defense
• Secretary of Commerce
• Secretary of Transportation
• Secretary of Homeland Security
• Director of National Intelligence
• Director of the Office of Budget and Management
• National Security Advisor
• Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• Homeland Security Advisor
• Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

References