Yesterday Isaacman was named, today the Prez drops an EO

I had planned to "call in sick" tonight, but it's not really sick, I just spent too much of the day working on plumbing - my least favorite kind maintaining the house. It's more like simply that everything hurts. 

Then I go look at Ars Technica and see Eric Berger posted a news item, "Trump commits to Moon landing by 2028, followed by a lunar outpost two years later."  

While I hear the stories about Trump working pretty much 24/7, I think this was worked on by more than one man for more than one day. That said, there's a lot stuff in there worth reading. I'll just paste Eric's top level summary and add that there's far more than that in the Executive Order itself. 

• 2028 lunar landing: Trump commits to returning Americans to the Moon by 2028 through the Artemis Program. Isaacman is to submit a plan within 90 days for achieving this and other policy objectives and mitigating any problems. Presumably, this will include ideas to expedite the development of a Human Landing System and lunar surface spacesuits.
• A lunar outpost: Establish “initial elements of a permanent lunar outpost by 2030 to ensure a sustained American presence in space and enable the next steps in Mars exploration.” The use of “outpost” could mean surface activities or the Lunar Gateway in orbit around the Moon, and it seems deliberately ambiguous.
• Nuclear reactors on the Moon: Seeks to deploy nuclear reactors on the Moon and in orbit, including a lunar surface reactor ready for launch by 2030. With this item, it does seem like the administration is committed to some sort of lunar surface activities in the long term.
• Private launch: “Enhance sustainability and cost-effectiveness of launch and exploration architectures, including enabling commercial launch services and prioritizing lunar exploration.” It’s good to see the administration acknowledge that privately developed rockets are the future.
• End of ISS: “Spurring private sector initiative and a commercial pathway to replace the International Space Station by 2030.” This is a restatement of NASA’s goal to end the space station in 2030 and have one or more commercial stations ready to go as a follow-up. That’s easier said than done.
• A focus on leaner procurement: “Use of existing authorities to improve efficiency and expedite space acquisitions, including a first preference for commercial solutions and a general preference for Other Transactions Authority or Space Act Agreements, customary commercial terms, or any other pathways to promote effective or streamlined acquisitions.” Cost-plus contracts are not mentioned.
• End the National Space Council: “This order supersedes Executive Order 14056 of December 1, 2021 (The National Space Council), which is hereby revoked.” Trump brought back the Space Council during his first term, but perhaps Vice President JD Vance is not interested in this area of policy.

NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya, left, along with NASA employees, welcomes NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman to the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters Building in Washington on his first day of work, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

On a totally unrelated note, Eric Berger does a story on the first successful landing of a Falcon 9, December 21, 2015. While I vividly remember watching the launch, the excitement of them successfully landing back on the Cape, and that it was 2015, the thing that's missing from my memory was that was three days after my last day of work. Which means I didn't think about work for a nanosecond.

Now, if you'll pardon me, I'm going to treat myself to a couple of Tylenol.