NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said he would not stay on as head of the agency under a Biden administration, even if asked by the president-elect.
Bridenstine, a Republican, represented Oklahoma's 1st Congressional District before President Donald Trump appointed him to NASA's top position. But he stressed that his plan to step down is not based on party affiliation. Rather, Bridenstine said, he would do so to ensure that the next leader of the agency could be someone with a longer-term relationship to Biden.
"The right question here is, 'What's in the best interest of NASA as an agency, and what's in the best interest of America's exploration program?'" Bridenstine told Aviation Week. "For that, what you need is somebody who has a close relationship with the president of the United States. You need somebody who is trusted by the administration.
"I think that I would not be the right person for that in a new administration," he added.
Related: Impact of the Midterm Elections May be Felt at NASA
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The outcomes of several races in the 2018 midterm elections may have an impact on the Europa Clipper mission, as well as other NASA priorities:
Perhaps the most significant loss occurred in Texas's Seventh Congressional District, home to thousands of the employees at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. A political newcomer, Lizzie Pannill Fletcher, defeated the incumbent John Culberson, who has served in the House since 2001. Culberson, an attorney, doesn't have a science background. But he grew up in the 1960s building telescopes, toying with model rockets, and reading popular science magazines. For the past four years, Culberson has pushed his colleagues in the House and the Senate to steadily grow nasa's budget, for projects including its climate-science programs—which may come as a surprise, given the congressman's party line on climate change.
Culberson has fiercely supported one mission in particular: a journey to one of Jupiter's moons, the icy Europa. As chair of the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science, Culberson more than doubled the amount of money the space agency requested from Congress for an orbiter around Europa, from $265 million to $545 million. He also threw in $195 million to support a lander to the moon, which nasa hadn't even planned for, but would of course accept. Scientists suspect that Europa's frozen crust covers a liquid ocean that may sustain microbial life. Culberson was intent on sending something there to find it. "This will be tremendously expensive, but worth every penny," he said last year, during a visit to nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to check its progress.
With Culberson out of the House, the funding portfolio for the Europa mission could change. "I don't see any obvious members of Congress, Republican or Democratic, who'd be taking up that mantle of leading the Europa efforts, so I imagine that those are likely to start to wane," said Casey Dreier, a senior space-policy adviser at the Planetary Society, a nonprofit space-advocacy group.
Dreier said the development of the Europa orbiter, known as Clipper, will certainly continue. Since nasa formally approved the mission in 2015, engineers and scientists have made significant progress on the design of the spacecraft. But without a steady flow of funding, its launch date could slip, he said. The lander is on shakier ground. "I don't think you're going to see money for the Europa lander to continue showing up, because that's money that nasa has not been requesting," Dreier said.
See also: Culberson's ouster could spell big problems for NASA's Orion program, experts say
NASA's Europa lander may be in jeopardy after the midterms — and some are fine with seeing it go
What the 2018 midterms mean for NASA and planetary science
Previously: House Spending Bill Offers NASA More Money Than the Agency or Administration Wanted
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 10 2020, @10:58AM (6 children)
"I can't be assed to dumb everything down for that senile little idiot to understand! Just give me my pension, and find someone with the patience to talk to morons!"
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 10 2020, @11:19AM (3 children)
You must be proud how Trump made being a complete asshole a norm.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 10 2020, @03:22PM (1 child)
And you and your upmodders can't see how your attitude and shitposting is just as assholic.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 10 2020, @10:43PM
Riiiiiight. You just conveniently don't see the parent post, among other things.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 11 2020, @06:40AM
Not same op but I am glad being an asshole is norm and not having a meltdown at drop of a hat.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by c0lo on Tuesday November 10 2020, @11:35AM (1 child)
Can't be assed to pork-barrel the SLS and JWST anymore, I made my fill, better quit while still ahead.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 5, Informative) by takyon on Tuesday November 10 2020, @12:08PM
Biden administration expected to emphasize climate science over lunar exploration at NASA [spacenews.com]
Key senator raises doubts about 2024 human lunar return [spacenews.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 10 2020, @12:28PM (7 children)
Bullshit. That's exactly what it is.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 10 2020, @03:05PM (2 children)
Maybe Bridenstine remembers
https://www.westernjournal.com/flashback-remember-when-obama-wanted-nasa-to-make-muslims-feel-good/ [westernjournal.com]
https://www.westernjournal.com/flashback-remember-when-obama-wanted-nasa-to-make-muslims-feel-good/?jwsource=cl [westernjournal.com]
Maybe Bridenstine thinks that a space agency is a silly choice to advance religion relations, and maybe just as silly a choice to administer global warming.
(Score: 5, Informative) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday November 10 2020, @08:00PM (1 child)
Why do you people unironically link to propaganda sites, and expect to be taken seriously?
That is from their "About" page.
Oh, and it is owned by Floyd Brown, who George HW Bush once described as "the lowest form of life".
(Score: 4, Interesting) by meustrus on Tuesday November 10 2020, @10:03PM
LOL, every single one of those "traditional Christian values" are doctrinal, not Biblical. There are Biblical counter-examples to literally every single one, so adherence to these specific principles is a choice to hold some scripture above others.
They may have a right to disagree with other Christians on most of these points, but describing them as "articulated in the Bible" is either ignorance or lies*. If they're willing to espouse either about something that is clearly so fundamental to their worldview as their religion, one can only imagine how careful they are to accurately and honestly report the news, regardless of their values.
--
* It also threatens the Christian religion itself by ensuring there can be no reconciliation with other Christian groups with conflicting doctrine, including mainline Protestant and Eastern Orthodox. Which is besides the point, but speaks further to their character as would-be Pharisees.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 10 2020, @03:47PM (3 children)
It's not. Biden has emphasized that space progress is basically dead under his administration. Seriously, he plans to refocus NASA into a climate science organization. I suppose he hasn't heard of the NOAA. But more practically, it has to do with identity politics. Significant progress in space 'while black guys are getting killed' is bad optics given the current rhetoric for the DNC.
And while climate science may be important, the thing that gets the gears of rocket scientist (and space enthusiasts) turning isn't looking at heat maps of Earth and measuring the ocean temperature. Should Biden ultimately win the presidency, the US will likely take a step backwards in space from which we may never recover since this is happening at the same time that places such as China are sending their human space programs into overdrive. This is just a god awful time to be an administrator of NASA unless you're just in it for the kickbacks.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 10 2020, @04:30PM (1 child)
At least we won't be discussing the merits of pussy grabbing for the next 3.5-4 years. Unless he goes off his rocker and Kamala batters the shit out of him. The Negro woman can be dangerous when provoked - riot police advised.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 10 2020, @08:18PM
She's not a woman, she's a camel. She should be saddled and ridden around the front lawn by a half asleep Biden, while he sniffs her stinky mane.
(Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Tuesday November 10 2020, @05:12PM
Launching a few climate satellites and not doing much human exploration until Starship is ready sounds like a great plan. I don't believe that's what will actually happen since the Senate is pretty much deciding the direction of NASA and they want to fund the Senate Launch System for as long as possible. What will happen is that Artemis will be slightly scaled back and deadlines will be pushed back since the 2024 manned landing was known to be unrealistic even before the pandemic.
Priorities between 2020-2024 include launching JWST, spending more money on SLS, and whatever. Biden/Harris don't even have to figure out what to do about the ISS since that can has been kicked down the road to 2030.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 10 2020, @01:38PM
perhaps?
(Score: 2, Troll) by khallow on Tuesday November 10 2020, @01:56PM (8 children)
(Score: 1, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday November 10 2020, @02:58PM (5 children)
Interesting. Never thought about it, but with a NASA administrator jealously guarding his authorities and privileges, people like Musk may never have been permitted to launch anything. And, it's not just the individual filling the office, but all of NASA, collectively. Few government agencies are willing to share any of their "glory" with any potential competitors.
(Score: 3, Informative) by FatPhil on Tuesday November 10 2020, @03:37PM (3 children)
Space-X is just another competitor in the marketplace where NASA is a customer.
It's basically Space-X vs. pork, not Space-X vs. NASA.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 10 2020, @03:59PM (1 child)
> Space-X vs. pork
Musk is very good at getting gov't financing for his other companies, my guess is he's making out just fine on the services that SpaceX sells to the government. Just a different flavor of pork?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 10 2020, @04:10PM
Well, if Musk is delivering things that no one else can deliver, why would you begrudge him a pork chop or two?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday November 10 2020, @07:19PM
Seems plausible right? But in practice, NASA has a long track record of killing competitors. For example, they had a federal-mandated monopoly for the Space Shuttle for private US satellites launched to space from 1975 to 1984. They then established a orbital launch cartel (with four launch vehicles each having its own niche monopoly: Pegasus, Delta II, Atlas II, and the Titan IV). That lasted for a bit over ten years until the DoD introduced competition with the Evolutionary Expendable Launch Vehicle program (EELV) and then SpaceX entered the market.
So that's the problem. Sure, it doesn't seem like it should be in NASA's interest to obstruct the private US launch industry and siding with the pork. But in practice, they have almost three decades of history of doing so. And that doesn't count the present 15 years of supporting outright failures like Ares and SLS.
(Score: 3, Informative) by tizan on Tuesday November 10 2020, @05:06PM
hmmm ...you do realize that the privatization of rocket launches started after the SLS was wrapped up which started well before his time. At least he managed to not kill it because it is something that Obama started.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 10 2020, @09:34PM
Let's see where he lands as I'm sure his job is lined up now anyway. A couple of those former administrators are working in/for aerospace companies grabbing some of that sweet NASA pork.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 11 2020, @09:33PM
During the Obama years, NASA had some insane off-topic priorities. One of them was Muslim outreach. That earns a "WTF" from all people of sound mind.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 10 2020, @06:57PM
Not gonna put up with the nigger-naggin'.