Space Council Meeting Will be Webcast

Thursday’s meeting of the White House National Space Council will be livestreamed according to the office of Vice President Mike Pence, who chairs the Council.  The space policy community is eagerly awaiting this first meeting of the Council under President Trump.  Most of the Council’s members are expected to attend.

President Trump reestablished the Space Council in June and designated Pence as its chair.  This first meeting on October 5, 2017 will take place at the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA, near Dulles Airport.

The Council was created by law in the FY1989 NASA Authorization Act (P.L. 100-685).  President George H. W. Bush established a Space Council by Executive Order 12675 during his presidency (January 1989-January 1993), which was chaired by Vice President Dan Quayle.  Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama chose not to fund or staff a council during their presidencies, using the National Security Council and Office of Science and Technology Policy to coordinate U.S. space policy instead.

Trump’s Executive Order sets the Council’s membership as follows:

• Vice President, who shall be Chairman
• Secretary of State
• Secretary of Defense
• Secretary of Commerce
• Secretary of Transportation
• Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget
• Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
• Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
• Director of National Intelligence
• Secretary of Homeland Security
• Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism
• Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
• heads of other executive departments and agencies and other senior officials within the Executive Office of the President as determined by the Chairman

Scott Pace is the Executive Secretary of the Council.   Jared Stout and Michael Mineiro have been brought on as staff members.  By law, the staff is limited to “not more than seven persons … headed by a civilian executive secretary.” There is no legal restriction on how many may be detailed from government agencies, however.

Confirmed participants in Thursday’s meeting according to Pence’s office are:

• Mike Pence, Vice President of the United States and Chairman of the National Space Council
• Rex Tillerson, Secretary of State
• James Mattis, Secretary of Defense
• Wilbur Ross, Secretary of Commerce
• Elaine Chao, Secretary of Transportation
• Mick Mulvaney, Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget
• H.R. McMaster, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
• Michael Kratsios, Deputy Chief Techology Office of the United States (and de facto Acting Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy)
• Dan Coats, Director of National Intelligence
• Elaine Duke, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security
• Robert Lightfoot, Acting Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• Gen. Paul Selva, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

Pence’s office said today that the meeting will be livestreamed at https://www.whitehouse.gov/live/vice-president-pence-hosts-national-space-council-meeting.   The agenda has not been released yet.