Pence re-launches National Space Council: ‘America will lead in space again’

Vice President Pence announced the Trump administration will re-launch the National Space Council during an address at the Johnson Space Center in Houston on Wednesday.

“Under President Donald Trump, America will lead in space again and the world will marvel,” Pence said. The vice president will lead the newly relaunched council.

“Our National Space Council will help our nation re-energize the pioneering spirit of America,” the vice president said. “And it will ensure that America never again loses our lead in space exploration and technology.”

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In March, Pence signaled Trump would “in very short order” resurrect the advisory council on space activities that has been dead for nearly 25 years. The National Space Council, which was created during the Eisenhower administration, was last active during the George H.W. Bush administration in 1989. The council is intended to centralize multiple federal agencies with oversight into space policy.

Trump allies have pushed for the council’s revival. Trump advisers Robert Walker and Peter Navarro pushed for the council to be revived in an op-ed one month before the election.

“Despite its importance in our economic and security calculations, space policy is uncoordinated within the federal government. A Trump administration would end the lack of proper coordination by reinstituting a national space policy council headed by the vice president,” Navarro and Walker wrote in Space News.