In today’s issue of The Space Review, I have an article summarizing a recent space policy roundtable in DC organized by CSIS. (Because of the ground rules of the discussion, none of the comments are attributed to any of the attendees.) A quick summary of the article:
- The problem is not developing policy but actually carrying it out: as one speaker put it, “But as we now understand, policy is not self-actualizing.”
- At least part of that problem with implementing policy is a lack of executive leadership for space, in both a “fragmentation” of authority among various agencies and a lack of strong leadership in the White House. “The bottom line is that the country really isn’t serious about getting a good space program,” one panelist said, resulting in a space program that is “good enough” but not good.
- The panelists were not enthused by President Obama’s proposal to re-establish the National Space Council. Some advocated an alternative approach that would create something like a senior director for space within the National Security Council, with a small staff; that would tie it closer to the national security space community and also allow for short lines of communications into the president’s inner circle.
Can you at least say who the attendees were?
Oops, sorry. The list of speakers is here (link also in the article). In addition to those panelists, there were a couple moderators, James Lewis of CSIS and David Logsdon of the Space Enterprise Council.
Thanks.
Were all of the comments you published from one of the speakers, or were some from other (unknown) attendees?
Yes, that covers it.
Thanks…