A New Era: A New Vision - #4.1

Three weeks ago, (23 July 2020), the National Space Council – at the White House – issued a fascinating document.  “A New Era for Space Exploration and Development.”
 
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/A-New-Era-for-Space-Exploration-and-Development-07-23-2020.pdf
 
It will influence the commercial, civil, academic, and defense space sectors – for years to come.
 
At LiftPort, we are creating a series of videos focused on ‘space policy.’  We are working through this document – page-at-a-time, a paragraph-at-a-time, and sometimes – word-at-a-time.  This detailed analysis matters.  The language of this document allows other government officials to adapt programs – for and against – big space concepts.  So, the wording matters. 
 
Honestly, some folks find this stuff exhausting.  It’s not the ‘cool & sexy’ parts of space development.  This is the ‘sausage-making’ part of doing the cool stuff.  There’s a saying in the space-biz that goes: “You gotta have ‘bucks’ to get to ‘buck rogers.’”  Well, to get those ‘bucks,’ you’ve got to have an overarching policy document that rationalizes WHY Congress should authorize the bucks…  THIS is that kind of policy document. 
 
Money will flow from this policy, money from Defense, and Civil space, money from Research and Development.  And money from private investors in Silicon Valley.  And, importantly, capital from other regions of the world who are looking for the US to provide leadership and ‘political cover’ for their own efforts and initiatives.
 
And that’s why we’re spending so much time and effort examining the nuance of this policy doc.  Because it matters to our long-term program of building the Elevator on the Moon.  It matters to everyone else, hoping to move humans to another world.
 
This deep dive into national policy is a regular feature of our Channel and has a dedicated playlist.  This stuff matters: all the decisions we make, internally, must be anchored in the reality of Washington DC’s priority matrix.
 
The three, preamble, videos in this series are:
A New Era: The New White House Space Policy - #1                   https://youtu.be/fjROHnaTtgc
A New Era: Introduction - National Space Council Policy - #2            https://youtu.be/YiPqL9qluEA 
A New Era: Background & Easter Eggs - #3                                 https://youtu.be/bMX7WXu_ABQ


Michael Laine
President, LiftPort Group​