Six months ago, the future of America's space program looked bright.

Elon Musk was poised to shape policy in the West Wing.

Entrepreneur Jared Isaacman was set to run NASA.

And in his inaugural address, President Trump pledged to send

American astronauts to Mars. That was then. Now, Musk and Trump have fallen out. Isaacman was

ousted, apparently for political reasons.

There's now not even a nominee for NASA administrator.

There's no national space council.

There's no clear direction.

Even before Isaacman's defenestration, Politico reported that space industry officials and Capitol Hill staffers see a rudderless administration when it comes to space policy. Confusion reigns.

Oh, and by the way, the White House is preparing to slash NASA's budget so deeply that in the words of one

former official, it will put the organization in going out of business mode.

Ars Technica reports that the agency leaders on stage at a NASA town hall this week looked like hostages.

This is the Tech Policy Podcast. I'm Corbyn Barthold. Here to help me make sense of it all is Jim

Dunstan, Senior Council at Tech Freedom and our resident space expert.

Jim, welcome back, sir.

Thank you. Glad to be back.

We have not done a space podcast in a while.

So before we dive into some of the drama, could you give us the lay of the land, remind us

what are the major projects at play here, the major ambitions, the headlines in space world

these days?

So obviously, what recent events have really rekindled is almost an age-old question of moon or Mars.

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