Enlarge / Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.) is likely to be NASA's next administrator.
NASA may finally be close to getting some clarity about its leadership during the Trump administration. On Tuesday, NASA Watch reported that the President will nominate US Representative Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.) as administrator and Aerojet Rocketdyne Vice President John Schumacher as deputy administrator. Both men have been rumored to be nominated for these posts in recent weeks, but there have been no official confirmations as yet.
Two sources familiar with Washington, DC, space politics confirmed the choices to Ars, but one of them offered a caveat. "I have heard same from multiple sources, but this is Trump world," one DC-based source said.
A formal announcement has been in the works for September, but a date and location have not yet been set. "To the best of my knowledge, there have been no White House announcements on this subject matter at this time," NASA's associate administrator for communications, Jen Rae Wang, told Ars on Tuesday evening.
John Logsdon, a noted space historian and author of several books, includingAfter Apollo? Richard Nixon and the American Space Program, said he has been hearing the same names. "Appointing Jim Bridenstine and John Schumacher as the top two NASA officials is an intriguing and potentially very productive move," Logsdon told Ars, via e-mail. "Bridenstine, for several years, has been conceptualizing what is needed for, as he suggests, an 'American Space Renaissance' and has been testing his ideas with multiple audiences. Schumacher is a Washington space community veteran, with years of both senior NASA and space industry executive experience. Together, they can bring both fresh ideas and a sense of political and policy realism to the space agency."
Since President Obama left office in January, a civil servant named Robert Lightfoot has been guiding the agency through the transition. Lightfoot was among the candidates for both positions, and it is not clear whether he will remain on at NASA. By all accounts, Lightfoot has done a good job at maintaining NASA's programs through the last eight months. His most critical decision came in May, when Lightfootdecided against putting crew on the maiden launch of the Space Launch System (SLS).
An aviator in the US Navy Reserve, Bridenstine is serving his third term as a US Representative for Oklahoma. From almost the beginning of his tenure in Congress, Bridenstine has shown an interest in civil, commercial, and military space policy. The conservative has previously outlined broad goals to modernize the US spaceflight enterprise with his American Space Enterprise Act.
He is a big-picture guy and seen as a potential changemaker. Bridenstine, 42, was championed by several commercial space companies because he is open to increased privatization of US civil and military space activities. "Our civil and defense space enterprises must not compete with the private sector, but enable domestic, commercial launch, and space capabilities," he has said.
The Oklahoma Congressman has also openly advocated for a human return to the Moon before NASA embarks upon a mission to Mars. In speeches and in a blog post on his Congressional website, Bridenstine has called the opening of the Moon for commercial activity the "Sputnik moment" for this generation.
"From the discovery of water ice on the Moon until this day, the American objective should have been a permanent outpost of rovers and machines at the poles with occasional manned missions for science and maintenance," Bridenstine wrote. "The purpose of such an outpost should have been to utilize the materials and energy of the Moon to drive down the costs and increase the capabilities of cis-lunar space."
Bridenstine checks several boxes for the Trump administration and space: a conservative Trump supporter, someone who would prioritize lunar exploration, build upon the commercialization of space, and be willing to push NASA back toward human exploration at the expense of some activities, such as Earth science. Some ardent supporters of NASA's large, government-led exploration programsthe SLS rocket and Orion spacecrafthave balked at Bridenstine since January due to his pro-commercialization views. However, the likely choice of a deputy administrator, Schumacher, may alleviate some of those concerns.
With more than three decades of experience inmilitary, civil, and commercial space, Schumacher understands how Washington, DC, works. He also has previous NASA experience, serving aschief of staff for former NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe from 2003 to 2005 and as NASA's Associate Administrator for External Relations from 1994 to 2003.
Schumacher hasworked at Aerojet Rocketdyne for the last 11 years, joining Aerojet in 2006 asvice president of the company's Washington, DC, operations. Aerojet is one of the prime contractors on the SLS rocket. In 2015, the engine-builder received a $1.16 billion contract from NASA to re-start production of the RS-25 engine to power the core stage of the SLS rocket.
In addition to demonstrating the administration's support for traditional aerospace contractors, Ars understands that Schumacher is seen as someone with the political connections and experience to manage NASA and push forward its agenda in Congress.
So what does this mean, if true? It suggests that Vice President Mike Pence and the Space Council will seek to innovate with NASA going forward. For example, it seems likely that the space agency will, over the next 12 to 18 months, revamp its exploration plans to include study the lunar surface for ice deposits and the ease at which those might be recovered. Human missions to the surface of the Moon are also likely to be planned for the 2020s.
Congress has maintained strong support for the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft, and White House seems willing to go along with both, at least for now. (The new executive secretary of the space council, Scott Pace, favors such an approach). At the same time, a Bridenstine-led NASA would likely continue to look for innovative ways to increase commercial partnerships, such as offering opportunities for traditional aerospace contractors, like Boeing and Lockheed Martin, as well as new space firms, such as SpaceX and Blue Origin, to deliver cargo to the Moon and build landers for that purpose.
The always simmering traditional space versus commercial space dynamic will be one of the most interesting areas to watch under the new leadership. The appointment of Bridenstine and Schumacher indicates that Pence has not fully made a decision yet on how much to commercialize NASA beyond its existing commercial crew and cargo programs.
Planetary science also seems relatively safe under NASA's likely leadership, given the strong support in Congress such missions enjoy. Climate science, of course, has been under siege at other federal agencies, and it likely would face similar funding cuts under Bridenstine's leadership.
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NASA may finally be getting a leaderOklahoma pilot Jim Bridenstine - Ars Technica