The International Space Station photographed by the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour capsule in late 2021.
AIAA ASCEND, Las Vegas — Microgravity research, on-orbit manufacturing and nuclear surface power: These are among the emerging technologies and markets that NASA should continue to fund in the near term, the Trump administration’s nominee for NASA chief financial officer told attendees here today.
“We need to make the small investments it takes for those to succeed as American industries,” Greg Autry said during a wide-ranging fireside chat on “The Future of Finance at NASA.”
The agency in recent years has awarded millions of dollars in contracts to help jumpstart a commercial market in low-Earth orbit in which NASA would be a customer, rather than the owner or operator. That’s the plan for 2030 after the International Space Station is retired, when NASA plans to rent space aboard one or more of the privately owned space stations under development.
Autry noted a parallel with the early days of aviation, when the U.S. government helped foster the nascent commercial airline industry by awarding companies contracts to deliver airmail.
“Those are smart ideas, and we need to be thinking strategically the same way in space,” Autry said. “The government can do things to help the private market succeed, then get the hell out of its way.”
The Senate Commerce Committee has not yet scheduled a nomination hearing for Autry, a White House liaison to NASA during the first Trump administration who is currently the associate provost for space commercialization and strategy at the University of Central Florida.
Also yet to be determined is the size of the budget he would oversee, if confirmed. While the specifics vary, the House and Senate versions of the budget would keep NASA’s overall funding around its current level of $25 billion, a sharp contrast to the $18.8 billion proposed by the Trump administration.
As a nominee, Autry said he could not comment on the specifics of the various proposals, but he pointed to NASA’s history of cost overruns, particularly with large flagship programs like the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope.
“We’ve got to realize that finance matters. You cannot be off by an order of magnitude,” he said. “We’ve got to be good stewards of the taxpayer money.”
Among the solutions he described is finding creative ways to bolster the industry that wouldn’t require awarding large contracts or grants. Take orbital debris mitigation, for example: The government could identify and characterize the pieces that pose the largest risk, then “put a bounty on them” to incentivize companies to retrieve and remove them.
“The government pays nothing until the object’s removed,” he said. This way, “you’re not picking the winners and losers, but you are jumpstarting a commercial industry, right?”
Related Posts
