New NASA chief to deepen private sector ties Nelson, an 82-year-old former three-term U.S. senator from Florida, will be replaced as NASA chief by Isaacman, a close associate of Musk's, Trump announced Dec. 4. Isaacman, founder and CEO of Shift4 payments and leader of the first all-civilian space flight into orbit, said he is hoping to "usher in an era where humanity becomes a true spacefaring civilization." Assuming he is confirmed by the Senate, what his remarks mean in practice for the U.S. space program remain to be seen, but in all likelihood, it portends even greater cooperation between the government agency and private sector players like Musk. In his comments, Isaacman referenced the "thriving space economy -- one that will create opportunities for countless people to live and work in space." Honored to speak @SpaceForceAssoc Space Power 2024 about the future of commercial space, the inevitable space economy & the critical role of @SpaceForceDoD. The Guardians are standing watch, protecting the high ground & ensuring our national security pic.twitter.com/0Fd9PDnC1C— Jared Isaacman (@rookisaacman) December 11, 2024 The National Space Society hailed his coming appointment, saying he brings "a wealth of experience in entrepreneurial enterprise, as well as unique knowledge in working with both NASA and SpaceX, a perfect combination as we enter a new era of increased cooperation between NASA and commercial spaceflight." Advertisement But are Isaacman's ties to Musk and the private space economy sector too close for ethical comfort? In an editorial on Isaacman's appointment, the Houston Chronicle predicted ethics watchdogs "will be keeping close tabs on how SpaceX stands to benefit as a space contractor" under his leadership and reported that "many space policy experts expect Trump to make NASA even more dependent on the commercial sector," perhaps by eliminating the SLS. "It would be a national security risk for the country to be overly dependent on SpaceX and Musk to reach space," the newspaper said. Competition for SpaceX is ramping up Despite Musk's incredibly powerful position as the world's richest man and his likely outsized influence over the U.S. regulatory and financial policy, 2025 also will mark an acceleration of competition against SpaceX in the space economy race. Amazon in August announced a $19.5 million expansion of a still-under-construction Florida processing facility for its ambitious Project Kuiper, through which its aims to build a constellation of more than 3,200 satellites to increase global broadband access. The first two Project Kuiper test satellites were launched in 2023, and Amazon said it plans to invest more than $10 billion in the project. Construction is forecast to be complete in 2025, and before the year is out, Amazon expects to "begin delivering service to customers." Advertisement Space economy analysts say Amazon's effort could pose the sternest test yet to the dominant market position of Musk's Starlink satellite broadband service. More competition during 2025 will come from China's Thousand Sails, or Qianfan, constellation. It is being rolled out in phases, including an initial phase of nearly 1,300 satellites, some 648 of which are planned for launch by the end of the end of the year. The full constellation of more 15,000 satellites traveling in low-altitude orbits are to be deployed by the end of 2030, according to the Shanghai city government, which is leading the effort. Despite a late start, "China is rapidly advancing in building satellite constellations, particularly in the commercial sector, and catching up with global competitors," the Chinese Communist Party organ Global Times proclaimed. Seemingly heading in the opposite direction, however, is Boeing's Starliner in the wake of its failed mission to bring two astronauts home from the International Space Station in September. Whether it would fly again in 2025 seemed unlikely until NASA revealed in October that it could carry out its next mission sometime during the year. Advertisement "The timing and configuration of Starliner's next flight will be determined once a better understanding of Boeing's path to system certification is established," NASA said. "This determination will include considerations for incorporating Crew Flight Test lessons learned, approvals of final certification products and operational readiness." U.S. Space Force spending could get a boost Under Trump, defense-related space spending is quite likely to get a significant boost in the coming year, at least if the Project 2025 plans laid out by the administration-aligned Heritage Foundation are any indication. That document calls for the U.S. Space Force to institute "offensive" strategies to provide a "deterrent" capability in space against anti-satellite nuclear weapons reportedly under development by Russia. One of the goals stated in the conservative roadmap is to "re-establish offensive capabilities to guarantee a favorable balance of forces, efficiently manage the full deterrence spectrum, and seriously complicate enemy calculations of a successful first strike against U.S. space assets." One area that almost certainly will receive more funding is the Space Force's Resilient Global Positioning System, or R-GPS. It is designed to "provide resilience to military and civil GPS user communities" by augmenting the existing civilian GPS constellation with new batches of small satellites meant to counter jamming threats by adversaries. Advertisement The first of three phases to produce up to eight R-GPS satellites available for launch as soon as 2028 already is underway. Contracts for the first phase were awarded by the Space Force in October. Meanwhile, 2025 could be the year Trump establishes a Space National Guard after setting the Space Force in his first administration. On the campaign trail in August, he promised the creation of such a force. "The time has come to create a Space National Guard as the primary combat reserve of the U.S. Space Force," he said at the National Guard Association of the United States conference in Detroit. "So as president, I will sign historic legislation creating a space National Guard." A 2021 analysis by the White House Office of Management and Budget estimated that it would cost $500 million annually to establish a Space National Guard, prompting the Biden administration to block earlier proposals, but proponents say a smaller version could be much more feasible and cost-effective. Crewed missions to Mars getting closer? Leaning on the development of Starship, Musk says SpaceX is planning about five uncrewed missions to Mars within two years, according to an X post in September. Advertisement "If those all land safely, then crewed missions are possible in four years," he wrote. "If we encounter challenges, then the crewed missions will be postponed another two years." The billionaire's ambitious timeline for manned missions to Mars and his oft-stated dreams of humans colonizing the Red Planet have drawn plenty of skepticism, even as The New York Times reported in July he has directed SpaceX employees to develop designs and details of a Martian city, and that he now expects 1 million people to be living there in about 20 years. One such skeptic is former President Barack Obama, who at the Paris POwR.Earth Summit in March criticized efforts by billionaires like Musk and Bezos to plant human colonies on Mars as a means to escape environmental degradation on Earth, even though the Red Planet has no breathable atmosphere. "I would rather us invest in taking care of this planet here," Obama said. "We were designed for planet Earth, and it would be nice to keep it! Even in the event of nuclear war or global warming, Earth will always be more suitable for humans than Mars. "Life will adapt and continue here, and we should invest now so that we can continue to live well here." Advertisement Still, as he did when he was president, Obama supported continuing to explore Mars for scientific and research purposes, and NASA has more plans to do so in 2025. NASA's ESCAPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) mission is now targeting a launch in 2025. ESCAPADE's two satellites will investigate how solar wind interacts with the magnetic environment of Mars. Learn more: https://t.co/eIoFQ0BbPO pic.twitter.com/kHtbIaxOKz— NASA (@NASA) September 6, 2024 The space agency has two planned Mars-related efforts on tap: the second of three Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analogs, or CHAPEA, which are simulated one-year Mars missions meant to help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet; and two identical Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorer spacecraft, or ESCAPADE -- an unmanned mission to study how the solar wind interacts with Mars' magnetic environment. The latter project, being undertaken in conjunction with Blue Origin, was originally set for an October opportunity window, but was delayed, with the next available window coming in spring 2025. Also, NASA could have a new strategy for returning rock samples collected by the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover in place sometime during 2025. A prior plan that would have cost $11 billion and delayed the core samples' return to Earth until 2040 was scrapped in April. Nelson said he wants any new plan to accomplish that mission in the 2030s. Advertisement The coming year also will see the repurposing of the crashed Ingenuity helicopter. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in December that Ingenuity, whose final flight came on Jan. 18, 2024, could live on as a Mars weather station for another 20 years. The helicopter still beams weather and avionics test data to the Perseverance rover about once a week, JPL scientists noted in a blog post. "The weather information could benefit future explorers of the Red Planet," they wrote. "The avionics data is already proving useful to engineers working on future designs of aircraft and other vehicles for the Red Planet." SpaceX launches sixth test flight of Starship rocket The SpaceX Starship rocket lifts off on its sixth flight test from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, on November 19, 2024. Photo by Joe Marino/UPI | License Photo Topics