For America’s direction in space, the course set by Vice President Kamala Harris during the Biden administration has been less to boldly go where no one has gone before and more like when on “Star Trek” Captain Kirk gave the command “Steady as she goes.”
Vice presidents historically have seen many limits to their political power, but President Biden appointed Ms. Harris to lead the National Space Council, a body that coordinates space policy across the federal government.
And as much of American politics has fractured along red vs. blue fault lines, space in general — and NASA, in particular — has managed to remain an arena that has stayed out of that fray. It continues to garner bipartisan support and public approval.
The Biden administration has largely sustained the directions set during the Trump administration. NASA is still working to send astronauts back to the moon. The Space Force has become an established branch of the military. SpaceX remains the domineering entity in governmental spaceflight, even as its owner, Elon Musk, has become a strident advocate of a second Trump presidency.
One sign of continuity in space policy is that Mr. Biden even set up a space council. Over the past 50 years, only three presidents — George H.W. Bush, Donald J. Trump and Mr. Biden — thought that space issues were weighty enough to warrant setting up a White House-level body to handle them.
While Ms. Harris has not made major shifts, she has added personal touches to U.S. space policy, including placing a greater emphasis on international diplomacy and highlighting how space technology can be employed to improve life on Earth.