In a conference call with reporters, a panel of experts — including Barry Pavel, senior director for defense policy and strategy at the National Security Council; Jim Kohlenberger, chief of staff of the Office of Science and Technology Policy; and Peter Marquez, the NSC’s director of space policy — outlined several aspects of the policy intended to support U.S. scientific, environmental and military interests in space.

NASA was not part of the press conference. Pavel said the space agency was just one of “a couple of dozen departments around the table,” including the State Department, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Department of Energy, meeting to develop a policy that “reflected the president’s priorities.”
A wide range of agencies collaborated to formulate ways to achieve what Obama outlined in a Kennedy Space Center speech in April. The coalition will attempt to develop a spacecraft by 2025 that would send astronauts on missions beyond the moon, including an orbit around Mars, by the mid-2030s.

Kohlenberger outlined the growing importance of the private space industry, calling an increasing emphasis on public-private partnerships an “important strategic move.” Pavel emphasized the importance of such collaboration in warning against potential collisions and reducing the risk of orbital debris.

The president is “fully committed” to “extending the space station to 2020 and beyond ... and to further utilize the space station in a more robust way for scientific discovery and exploration,” Kohlenberger said. While the experts emphasized that international partnerships would be a priority, they avoided answering a more sensitive question: whether China would be invited to the International Space Station.

In a written statement issued earlier Monday by the White House, Obama said the new plan would “rapidly increase our capabilities in space while bolstering America’s competitive edge in the global economy.”