AP FACT CHECK: Trump says he saved space program after Obama

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is making claims on space that are off course from reality.

Over the weekend, he took full credit for the government's role in the launch of SpaceX, the first-ever private spacecraft to attain orbit with astronauts on board. Trump also asserted that he saved the space program after President Barack Obama had ruined it and suggested that a Mars mission with astronauts was imminent.

Those statements are exaggerations.

TRUMP: “With this launch, the decades of lost years and little action are officially over. ...Past leaders put the United States at the mercy of foreign nations to send our astronauts into orbit. Not anymore. Today we once again proudly launch American astronauts on American rockets.” — remarks Saturday.

THE FACTS: It's not true that government's role in SpaceX’s launch is due all to Trump. The path to a commercial launch was paved over more than 10 years, spanning both the administrations of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

Under Bush, NASA began an effort to commercialize space following the shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003, which killed its crew of seven. In 2006, he started a program to get commercial companies to deliver cargo to the International Space Station. The Obama administration “pushed it harder, much harder,” said Syracuse University space policy professor Henry Lambright.

By 2012, a robotic SpaceX capsule docked with the International Space Station for the first time.

Meanwhile, with the Space Shuttle program winding down, the Obama administration worked to broaden the space commercialization effort, giving money to private companies to develop spacecraft that could carry astronauts to orbit.

In a briefing with reporters last month, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine...