Why it matters that President Trump just dialed into a NASA news conference
Why it matters that President Trump just dialed into a NASA news conference
为什么特朗普总统突然连线 NASA 新闻发布会意义重大
As is standard procedure for major NASA missions, the US space agency held a post-launch news conference on Sunday morning at Kennedy Space Center in Florida to provide information about how the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope was faring during its initial maneuvers. What was not standard, however, is what happened in the middle of the news conference.
按照 NASA 重大任务的标准流程，美国航天局于周日上午在佛罗里达州的肯尼迪航天中心举行了发射后新闻发布会，旨在通报南希·格蕾丝·罗曼太空望远镜（Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope）在初始机动阶段的运行情况。然而，发布会中途发生的一幕却并不寻常。
A little less than half an hour in, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman looked down at his mobile phone, and then stood up and walked away from the dais where he had been seated behind a table along with other NASA officials. He briefly left the room. Isaacman returned about a minute later, phone in hand, apologizing for interrupting NASA’s chief of science, Nicky Fox, as she was speaking about the mission.
发布会进行不到半小时，NASA 局长贾里德·艾萨克曼（Jared Isaacman）低头看了一眼手机，随后起身离开了主席台，此前他正与其他 NASA 官员并排坐在台后的桌前。他短暂地离开了房间。大约一分钟后，艾萨克曼拿着手机回到座位，并为打断了正在介绍任务的 NASA 首席科学家尼基·福克斯（Nicky Fox）而致歉。
“The President of the United States of America would like to address and congratulate everyone on this mission,” Isaacman said, returning to his seat. In an unusual moment, Trump then spoke through Isaacman’s phone to the assembled reporters and NASA officials.
“美利坚合众国总统希望向大家发表讲话，并祝贺此次任务取得成功，”艾萨克曼回到座位后说道。随后，在这一不同寻常的时刻，特朗普通过艾萨克曼的手机向在场的记者和 NASA 官员发表了讲话。
“I just want to thank everybody, and congratulate you. Boy, it looked beautiful on television,” Trump said of the Roman space telescope launch. “Jared is doing a fantastic job, you are doing a fantastic job, and I’m supplying you all that money.”
“我只想感谢大家，并向你们表示祝贺。天哪，在电视上看（发射过程）真是太美了，”特朗普在谈到罗曼太空望远镜发射时说。“贾里德做得非常出色，你们也做得非常出色，而且我正在为你们提供所有的资金。”
What is going on here?
这究竟是怎么回事？
So what to make of this? Presidents, historically, do not call into a NASA news conference. In truth, presidents do not spend much time thinking about space in general, or NASA in particular. This is changing with the increasing importance of space from a military standpoint, but for most presidents civil space lies fairly low on the priority list. Presidents call astronauts when they’re orbiting the Moon; they don’t dial into post-launch news conferences.
那么该如何解读这一举动呢？从历史上看，总统通常不会连线 NASA 的新闻发布会。事实上，总统们通常不会花太多时间去思考太空问题，尤其是 NASA 的事务。随着太空在军事层面重要性的日益凸显，这种情况正在发生变化，但对于大多数总统而言，民用航天在优先事项清单中排名并不高。总统们会在宇航员绕月飞行时致电慰问，但绝不会连线发射后的新闻发布会。
But Trump is clearly having a NASA moment. On Friday he spent several hours at Johnson Space Center in Houston, where he awarded the crew of Artemis II the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and then announced plans for a United States Space Academy. Then, over the weekend, he became enraptured by the prospect of launching the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, NASA’s next great space-based observatory.
但特朗普显然正处于一个“NASA 时刻”。周五，他在休斯顿的约翰逊航天中心度过了几个小时，为“阿耳忒弥斯 2 号”（Artemis II）机组人员颁发了国会太空荣誉勋章，并宣布了建立美国太空学院的计划。随后，在周末，他对发射南希·格蕾丝·罗曼太空望远镜——NASA 下一个伟大的天基观测台——的前景感到着迷。
At every turn Trump has offered praise for Isaacman, a businessman and private astronaut who has been seeking to reform NASA for the modern era of spaceflight. The warm relationship is all the more surprising because it was only a little more than a year ago that Trump pulled Isaacman’s nomination to lead NASA, citing the lack of “complete alignment” with the America First agenda. Isaacman, a political moderate who leans Republican, had donated to some Democratic candidates in the past. But late last year Trump had a change of heart and reinstated his nomination.
特朗普在各个场合都对艾萨克曼大加赞赏。艾萨克曼是一位商人兼私人宇航员，一直致力于为现代航天时代改革 NASA。这种热络的关系之所以令人惊讶，是因为就在一年多前，特朗普还曾撤回对艾萨克曼领导 NASA 的提名，理由是他与“美国优先”议程缺乏“完全一致”。艾萨克曼是一位倾向于共和党的政治温和派，过去曾向一些民主党候选人捐款。但去年年底，特朗普改变了主意，恢复了他的提名。
“With Jared, I have to tell you, everybody wanted him,” Trump said Friday, in Houston. “I got a lot of calls from Republicans and Democrats, something that doesn’t happen very often, and the people just said, ‘He’s just the best.’ There was no competition. And he’s turned out to be better than we even thought possible, right? Even better. So we’re lucky to have Jared.”
“关于贾里德，我必须告诉你们，每个人都想要他，”特朗普周五在休斯顿说。“我接到了许多共和党人和民主党人的电话，这种情况并不常见，他们都说：‘他就是最棒的。’他没有竞争对手。事实证明，他比我们想象的还要出色，对吧？甚至更好。所以我们很幸运能拥有贾里德。”
Striking while the iron is hot
趁热打铁
Isaacman is clearly seeking to seize the moment and parley the President’s interest in NASA into future success for the space agency. Scientists may scratch their heads as they watch Trump take credit for providing “all that money” for NASA when his first budget for the space agency sought to slash science funding by 50 percent, and cut it overall by 25 percent. The fiscal year 2026 budget proposal even sought to cancel the Roman space telescope. Now, Trump is trying to take credit for its success?
艾萨克曼显然正试图抓住这一时机，将总统对 NASA 的兴趣转化为该机构未来的成功。当科学家们看到特朗普将提供“所有资金”的功劳揽在自己身上时，可能会感到困惑，因为他为 NASA 制定的第一份预算曾试图削减 50% 的科学经费，并将总预算削减 25%。2026 财年的预算提案甚至试图取消罗曼太空望远镜项目。现在，特朗普却试图将该项目的成功归功于自己？
The reality is a little more nuanced. Trump likely does not comb through his budget requests line-by-line, especially for a civil space agency. Rather the cuts sought in fiscal year 2026 and 2027 (which have been, or will be largely repudiated by Congress) in the administration’s budget were driven by Trump’s head of the White House Office of Management and Budget leader Russ Vought, who has been waging a war on US government funding of science—with Trump’s backing.
现实情况要微妙得多。特朗普很可能不会逐行审阅他的预算申请，尤其是针对民用航天机构的预算。相反，2026 和 2027 财年预算中寻求的削减（这些削减已被或将主要被国会否决）是由特朗普的白宫管理和预算办公室主任拉斯·沃特（Russ Vought）推动的，他在特朗普的支持下，一直对美国政府的科学资助发动“战争”。
Although he was certainly responsible for the cuts, it’s unclear how much Trump was interested in their details when they were proposed. But now, at least on a temporary basis, NASA has caught Trump’s interest. Sources said Isaacman has spent a lot of time with the President over the last three days, making the case for future science missions as well as the Artemis Program.
尽管特朗普无疑要为这些削减负责，但尚不清楚在提出这些削减时，他本人对细节的关注程度有多高。但现在，至少在短期内，NASA 已经引起了特朗普的兴趣。消息人士称，艾萨克曼在过去三天里与总统共度了大量时间，为未来的科学任务以及“阿耳忒弥斯”计划进行游说。
The question is whether this interest will be reflected in the budget request for fiscal year 2028, which is now in the initial stages of preparation. Will Trump, who frequently changes his mind on issues, stay invested in NASA? NASA’s science programs could use some help. The agency has one more major science mission coming up, the launch of Dragonfly to Titan in 2028. After that the science cupboard looks more threadbare, and NASA could use some major new mission starts. And of course the race back to the Moon continues to heat up with China. If the United States is serious about landing humans there before the end of this decade the space agency could use more resources to make that a reality.
问题在于，这种兴趣是否会体现在目前处于初步准备阶段的 2028 财年预算申请中。经常改变主意的特朗普会持续投入 NASA 吗？NASA 的科学项目确实需要一些支持。该机构还有一个即将到来的重大科学任务，即 2028 年发射“蜻蜓号”（Dragonfly）前往土卫六。在那之后，科学任务储备看起来就显得捉襟见肘了，NASA 需要启动一些重大的新任务。当然，与中国重返月球的竞赛仍在升温。如果美国真的打算在本十年结束前将人类送上月球，那么航天局需要更多的资源来实现这一目标。