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Vice President Harris will chair the National Space Council

01 May 2021
Dan Ackermann

The Biden administration will keep the National Space Council — reestablished initially by the Trump administration — and Vice President Kamala Harris plans to chair it.

Why it matters: Many see the National Space Council as integral to policy development and inter-agency collaboration as the nation increasingly relies on space for national security and other uses.

Details: The council is designed to bring NASA and a variety of other government agencies together to help establish policies related to civil, commercial and military space.

  • "The council's basic objectives — national security, basic science, technological development, contributions to U.S. economic growth and the commercial sector — will all be maintained," a senior administration official said during a call with reporters Saturday. "To that, I would just want to add that the vice president also intends to put her own personal stamp on the council."
  • That includes an emphasis on STEM, climate change and "sustainable development of commercial space activity," the official noted.

The big picture: The Biden administration has largely kept Trump-era space policies intact so far, supporting the Space Force and NASA's Artemis mission to send people back to the Moon as a proving ground for Mars.

  • But senior administration officials did draw a distinction between how the National Space Council was run under Vice President Mike Pence and how it might be operate under Harris.
  • "I think her approach to this is just going to be to get the job done, and use this to lead our space policy, and not really focus, perhaps as much on big displays," the official said.

What's next: It's unclear when the first meeting of the council will be convened, but senior administration officials said that a top priority now is finding an executive secretary to help run the council day to day.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.