This strikes me as a big Trump administration policy move with NASA. Highlights:

• Careful maneuvering laying the groundwork for cancelling the massive SLS swamp project

• NASA to the Moon within the Trump presidency

Since at least the 1980s, NASA's dream has been re-creating the "magic" of Apollo, so in a cargo cult mentality, they make programs to develop a big impressive rocket and launch it somewhere by the end of a decade. None of these programs ever get anywhere, but they spend a LOT of money, and act a vortex that pulls in any resources that could be devoted to opening up space.

This combination strikes me as a swamp signature, perhaps with an overlay of swamp not wanting us to get easier access to space. The current program in this mold is SLS (Space Launch System), which has spent billions of dollars and hasn't even launched a single test flight. Current NASA policy revolves around SLS as the core rocket for any NASA manned flights beyond Earth orbit.

Many space advocates have wanted NASA to cancel SLS and shift to reusable rockets such as SpaceX Falcon Heavy. (Not relevant here is speculation about where SpaceX falls in the good/bad spectrum of the storm, this post is about the NASA swamp.) NASA administrator Bridenstine has spoken favorably of SLS, giving the impression that the Trump administration was content to let NASA slide.

Although space is important (even mentioned in the POTUS inaugural speech!) the administration's focus seemed to be on the military space force, and some have speculated about newly released technologies changing the landscape so current rockets become irrelevant; current NASA seemed to be an afterthought.

However, the pattern of recent statements by Bridenstine and Pence looks like a very calculated move to undercut SLS – speculation about shifting a specific test flight to a commercial rocket due to schedule questions about SLS's readiness to fly on the current schedule, statements reaffirming support for SLS, then statements about moving up the overall program schedule and being willing to consider commercial rockets, etc.

Then today, instead of the standard NASA pattern of having a big program that doesn't get anywhere and pushing the goalposts down the road, Pence and Bridenstine suddently yanked the goalposts forward by announcing a target of going to the Moon within five years – a very interesting target because it would put NASA on the Moon within POTUS' term of office!

THAT fact, combined with the subtle maneuverings towards cancelling the SLS swamp project while carefully shifting the mental landscape looks a LOT like the other areas of the Plan. I think POTUS has something special planned for the Moon.

NASA Administrator Statement on Return to Moon in Next Five Years

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=53855

Articles

https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/pence-reiterates-trump-administrations-willingness-to-abandon-sls/

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2197807-the-us-wants-to-send-astronauts-to-the-moons-south-pole-in-2024/

https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/26/18282598/nasa-mike-pence-vice-president-space-policy-lunar-landings-2024-gateway-sls-orion

http://nasawatch.com/archives/2019/03/white-house-tel.html

http://www.transterrestrial.com/2019/03/26/to-the-moon-alice-5/