The role of the council, formally reestablished in a June 30 executive order by President Donald Trump, was the central theme of a July 14 symposium on U.S. space leadership held by George Washington University and the Aerospace Corporation here.

"When the space council was first rumored to be resurrected last fall, my initial reaction was somewhat skeptical," said Ben Roberts, who worked on space issues at the Office of Science and Technology Policy during the Obama administration. "Over the last several months, I think I've become a lot more positive about the idea."

He said the space council is particularly important now given the potentially diminished role of OSTP, which traditionally took the lead on civil and commercial space issues, in the Trump administration. The current administration has yet to name a director of the office, and many of its staff have left.

Even when both OSTP and the National Security Council (NSC) are fully staffed, though, only a few people work on space issues. "It's hard to appreciate until you're there how thinly staffed" those offices are on space, said Damon Wells, who previously worked on space issues at OSTP. The National Security Council had a single person working space issues, with only a couple at OSTP and the Office of Management and Budget. "And that was it. That's who was working space in the White House."