Oklahoma Representative James Bridenstine, a Navy Reserve pilot, was confirmed as NASA's 13th administrator on Thursday.
In a 50-49 vote Thursday, Oklahoma Representative James Bridenstine, a Navy Reserve pilot, was confirmed as NASA's 13th administrator, an agency that usually is kept away from partisanship. His three predecessors — two nominated by Republicans — were all approved unanimously. Before that, one NASA chief served under three presidents, two Republicans and a Democrat.
The two days of voting were as tense as a launch countdown.
A procedural vote Wednesday initially ended in a 49-49 tie — Vice President Mike Pence, who normally breaks a tie, was at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida — before Arizona Republican Jeff Flake switched from opposition to support, using his vote as leverage to address an unrelated issue.
Thursday's vote included the drama of another delayed but approving vote by Flake, a last-minute no vote by Illinois Democrat Tammy Duckworth — who wheeled onto the floor with her 10-day-old baby in tow — and the possibility of a tie-breaker by Pence, who was back in town.
Related Stories
NASA chief on Moon return: "This will not be Lucy and the football again"
In 1989, President George H.W. Bush announced the Space Exploration Initiative, a long-range commitment toward the human exploration of deep space, beginning with a return to the Moon. "Major parts of that policy went forward, but establishing permanence on the Moon was abandoned," Bridenstine said Tuesday. Then, in 2004, President George W. Bush announced a bold plan to send humans back to the Moon, where they would learn how to operate in deep space and then go on to Mars. This became the Constellation program. Again, major parts of that policy went forward, Bridenstine said. But NASA abandoned the drive back to the Moon.
Before the US Senate confirmed pilot and former congressman Bridenstine, the Trump administration announced a plan to send humans back to the Moon. "To many, this may sound similar to our previous attempts to get to the Moon," Bridenstine said Tuesday. "However, times have changed. This will not be Lucy and the football again."
How have times changed? During his brief address, Bridenstine listed several technologies that he believes have lowered the cost of a lunar return. These include the miniaturization of electronics that will allow for smaller robotic vehicles, the decreasing costs of launch, private investment in spaceflight, commercial interest in lunar resources, and new ways of government contracting. (Bridenstine did not mention the Space Launch System rocket or the Orion spacecraft).
The speech was only a few minutes long, so I wouldn't read too much into the absence of SLS/Orion. But it's no secret that BFR could deliver 150 metric tons to the Moon or Mars by using in-orbit refueling, vs. a lot less when using the expensive SLS.
Previously:
Related:
Should We Skip Mars for Now and Go to the Moon Again?
How to Get Back to the Moon in 4 Years, Permanently
After the Falcon Heavy Launch, Time to Defund the Space Launch System?
President Trump Praises Falcon Heavy, Diminishes NASA's SLS Effort
NASA's Chief of Human Spaceflight Rules Out Use of Falcon Heavy for Lunar Station
NASA Cancels Lunar Rover
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 20 2018, @08:07PM (15 children)
At the current rate of voting, Trump will need 9 years to get his nominations confirmed. That seems like a good reason to amend our constitution to let Trump serve as long as FDR. Trump's presidency doesn't fully start until his nominations are confirmed.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 20 2018, @08:15PM
"Cheap Chinese junk!" the man screeched, as he threw an object across the room. He couldn't believe it. Youngson knew that products from China were cheap and fragile, but the product had broken after only an hour of use; that was a new low! The man was furious, and as such, he decided to take the item back to the store and demand a refund. Youngson tossed the broken garbage into his car and drove to the location in which he purchased it.
"I'm sorry, sir! We'll give you a refund immediately!" the manager said sincerely. After hearing Youngson's story and inspecting the broken item, the store agreed to refund the man and the manager apologized profusely for the trouble. "Thank you. I suggest that, from now on, you only carry products made in the USA. It's the only way to be sure that they are high quality." the man said happily. The manager agreed with the man, and sent him off with a smile. "Now, I guess it's time to take care of this trash." the manager said, sighing.
A man who looked very much like the manager of the aforementioned store was later seen tossing a naked woman into a dumpster. Upon closer inspection, one would find that her face had been smashed in and her body was covered in bruises. Ah, what a fine day to be a man.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 20 2018, @08:38PM (3 children)
The big holdup hasn't been partisianship. It has been Trump. There are many positions where the White House hasn't even submitted a nominee. The entire last year was marred by the potential nominees not even filling out their paperwork.
The partiseanship is from dillweeds like you who believe the crap spewed by Hannity and Trump, which is basically the opposite of what is going on.
You would think Trump would be very motivated to get his people in place before he's impeached.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 20 2018, @10:45PM (2 children)
There are 9 years worth of nominations waiting.
Why would Trump bother putting more on the pile?
Why would a potential nominee accept a nomination that will be moot, since Trump will have already left office by the time the senate gets to it?
Why would a potential nominee want to promise to serve 9 years or more into the future, sort of putting their career on hold to wait for confirmation?
There is simply no reason to fill out the paperwork or even try to nominate anybody. The only reasonable thing for Trump to do is to get people hired at low positions in the agencies, then fire everybody above them, causing his people to become "acting this" and "acting that".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 21 2018, @05:07PM (1 child)
Yup, those fucking obstructionist Democrats keep blocking Trump's nomin--
...
With friends like these, who needs enemies, eh?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 21 2018, @05:43PM
There are normally a few republicans who hate America. Sometimes we call them RINOs, meaning Republican In Name Only. Sometimes the mirror image of that, a DINO, also exists.
None of this changes the fact that the vote falls almost perfectly on party lines. You can point out one or two RINOs perhaps, but really it is "those fucking obstructionist Democrats".
(Score: 3, Insightful) by realDonaldTrump on Friday April 20 2018, @08:47PM
Thank you, that's so true. Our folks in Congress have one job, voting. And they're doing it VERY SLOWLY. Delay, delay, delay! Disgraceful. Need more LOYAL Republicans -- this one (congrats James) only went through because of Jeff Flakey. Red Tide (wave/landslide) coming soon. President very weak & inexperienced because of UNFAIR term limits. Need Constitutional Convention! #RepealThe22nd [twitter.com]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Friday April 20 2018, @09:03PM (8 children)
This post seems like a good reason to implement internet face stabbing technology so that we can use it repeatedly until you stop posting crap like this.
The obvious rebuttal here is that voters can decide if that is what they want their legislators to do via election. If it is, then sucks to be Trump.
(Score: 1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 21 2018, @02:47AM (4 children)
The frustration and anger is real. We like Trump, we chose him, and we want him to have his way. At this point, seriously, an awful lot of us would go for an "enabling act". We're pissed.
In the long term, whether you know it or not, you want this too. Things can go two directions. In one direction, we MAGA, and the USA doesn't really change that much. It gets to be a powerful country with a traditional American culture. In the other direction, you don't let us MAGA, and the USA collapses like the Roman empire -- well, nothing is forever -- and a century later some sort of "caliphate" pretender runs a brutal 3rd-world islamofascist dictatorship.
Well, I suppose you could really not care about the future. It's typical for leftists to not have kids, so what does it matter if life goes to Hell in a handbasket? Party on! More free shit! Let civilization burn!
(Score: 3, Informative) by khallow on Saturday April 21 2018, @03:23AM (2 children)
And other people didn't choose him and don't want him to have his way. Welcome to democracy.
The problem here is that Trump's administration is incompetent and he hasn't developed many political allies, which you need in order to get things done in Congress. I oppose altering law for the convenience of an incompetent leader.
I imagine there's a lot of US citizens who want MAGA. They just don't agree on what it is or how to get it. I think the Trump approach will fail, but he's free to prove me wrong.
Nonsense. China would keep that from happening. They'll be the power of that time. Besides I think the problem ideologies of a century from now will bear little resemblance to the ideologies of today, among other things being heavily based on technology and infrastructure rather than raw belief. Islam could be a component of that, but it's unlikely IMHO.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 21 2018, @12:42PM (1 child)
No comment.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Saturday April 21 2018, @02:15PM
Guess what buttercup? I didn't say the future would be absolutely perfect. In China's defense, they're already vastly better than they were thirty years ago, and not just in terms of economics.
The hysteria over Islam is way misplaced. I think it's already on its way to being resolved with such things as the "Arab Spring" - it just takes time. I find it remarkable, for example, that someone can babble about a nonexistent global caliphate and completely ignore China.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 21 2018, @07:02AM
I see others are giving you more attention than you deserve so I'll just be brief and to the point.
You're a fucking idiot.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 21 2018, @03:47AM (2 children)
Oh my, it's the tolerant Left again! Thankfully the desire to violently control what others say was never a strong selling point for your side. And voting with the goal of obstructing an administration that is doing helpful things for the country is just sad.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday April 21 2018, @04:58AM
That's one way to interpret it. I imagine the obstructionists have another.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 21 2018, @06:01PM
Where is aristarchus to comment on khallow being lumped in with him?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by edIII on Friday April 20 2018, @08:08PM (23 children)
Instead of draining the swamp, Trump has drained all of the intelligence and skill out the State Department, EPA, and now NASA.
One of our greatest agencies, in terms of ROI, is now lead by an anti-science dipshit that thinks we started out 6,000 years ago and that God will come clean up the mess as if we were wayward 4 year olds in our rooms.
I already know America is doomed. Well, here's hoping for success in China's space program..... cuz America is no longer leading the world in anything.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 20 2018, @08:17PM
Making the US space program work involves actually developing and implementing technology for launching craft. NASA doesnt belong in climate change, climate change is all political, plots to globally redistribute wealth, its utilized based on Liberals ideas that the US is a faulty country, and reparations need to be made to other countries. The idea getting NASA out of climate change claptrap, ultimately intended to turn the US into a third world country, will put his behind China is the opposite of the truth. Growing the tax base in the US with economic growth means more money to put toward NASA and the cool stuff that the Chinese are doing
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Thexalon on Friday April 20 2018, @08:30PM (14 children)
My expectation as to his plan, which is pretty standard for the Republicans:
1. Make government agencies not work properly.
2. Balloon the deficit.
3. Go to the public and say "These agencies suck, and we have a money problem, so we're going to eliminate them."
Or, the shorter version of this: The Republican Party believes government doesn't work, and whenever they're in office do everything in their power to prove their point.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 20 2018, @08:41PM
4. To fix our money problem, we need to cut taxes to get the economy going, and oh, that money problem, it's them damn tax and spend Liberals fault (who are coming for your guns!).
(Score: 1) by Captival on Friday April 20 2018, @10:28PM (8 children)
OH NO, YOU MEAN THEY MIGHT WANT LESS GOVERNMENT!?
Gasp. This is incredibly shocking. How can we live our lives without massive bloated inefficient corrupt bureaucracies? It's the stuff of nightmares. Luckily you figured it all out and warned us before it went too far.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 20 2018, @10:48PM (3 children)
> How can we live our lives without massive bloated inefficient corrupt bureaucracies?
Ah, I see we have another commenter here without basic reading comprehension. I'll repeat that, but I'll try to use small words, so you understand me.
First Reds make stuff bad. Then Reds complain stuff bad. Then Reds get rid of stuff. Then all else bad.
Point is, of course stuff bad. They make it bad. Was not so bad before.
(Score: 1, Redundant) by khallow on Saturday April 21 2018, @04:21AM (2 children)
There is an alternative narrative for that. Blues make shitty service because feelz. Because it's shitty, it doesn't work right. Blame reds. Go back to step one.
I think the real problem is that most politicians on both sides half ass this stuff rather than do it right, because half assing gets you just as many votes with a lot less effort. I can't tell you how many times I've complained about a broken government program or blowback from a poorly thought out public good and the reply is some pathetic ad hominem along the lines of "So you hate poor people?" or "You're getting paid to say that!" So there are plenty of people out there for which half assing works. The box got checked: poor people helped or abusive government program targeted.
But it seems to me that there's no point to complaining about how the other side does things, if you're not willing to fix what's broken.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 23 2018, @06:06PM (1 child)
Yes, gov't is inefficient, but the alternatives have other problems. Letting people in a jam die is one approach. Obviously, dying is no fun. The private sector is usually more efficient, but also have an incentive to try to trick and trap consumers/users above making a better mouse-trap. The problem is that humans suck, not gov't specifically. Just be glad civilization mostly works: there's no guarantee it will keep working.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday April 24 2018, @04:12AM
And I guess we shrug at this point and just continue believing whatever because inertia?
The problem here isn't that humans and their things are imperfect, but rather that a bunch of people are completely ignoring rational sources of disagreement and then blaming dissenters when things don't work as perfectly as expected.
But why aren't the advocates for these programs insuring that any interference isn't so destructive? The "reds" can't operate in a vacuum. They are successful only because they aren't strongly opposed. And why aren't the naysayers just killing the supposedly problematic programs outright? That's the half-assed efforts right there.
Who really believes the people who have made the current political system such a slimy mess would make less of a mess, if they were even less supervised? Some accounting is just being sane. But what makes the current accounting so screwed up is that it keeps track of insignificant details like the disposition of screws and blows off huge details like how much the latest jet fighter costs.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Friday April 20 2018, @10:59PM (1 child)
To use the ever-popular car anology:
Let's say you have a disagreement between you and your spouse over whether to get rid of an aging but functional car. You think it's a worthless piece of junk, your spouse thinks it is still useful.
What I'm objecting to is the following tactic: You open up the hood, take a crowbar to the engine block, come back inside and say "Well, I guess it's beyond repair, we'll have to trade it in."
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 21 2018, @07:11AM
Trade-in == sell and keep 2/3 for you and 1/3 for the wife
(Score: 5, Informative) by edIII on Friday April 20 2018, @11:24PM (1 child)
The Republicans are responsible for the massive bloat and inefficiencies as much as the Democrats, but are just more fucking hypocritical and deluded.
I'll give you welfare programs as an example. The actual assistance part of it was corrupt as fuck. Now I don't know if the private citizens that got paid for operating the beautician schools where Republican or not, but I sure as fuck know that anybody with two brain cells can figure out that 10,000 young girls trying to cut hair in a city that can only support 4,000 of them is fucking stupid on many levels, most poignantly economically.
It's awfully hard to criticize some of these programs when they were corrupted from the start as a pork barrel project for Senators and their wealthy friends. If we were to actually audit all of our government spending for the last 100 years, you would find that a lot of that government money ended up in the hands of people close the politicians and the wealthy elite. Not only that, but that the projects had most of their cost being the profit for c-suites on up. Two million for the actual labor, two million for materials, and twenty million for the c-suites and share holders.
When we laugh/cry about a hammer being two hundred fucking dollars, and being sold tenpenny nails for 10 dollars a piece, who is ending up with that money?
Republicans can try to lie to us all they want. We've never had a properly operated social program to begin with, everything is horribly mismanaged, and nobody is looking over at the greedy fuckers in the corner that know our problems would go away if they just paid us more.
Living wages reduce the load on social programs dramatically. In part because if the middle class is super strong, they also tend to not be like the avaricious sociopathic elites, but concerned for the welfare of the poor. Tithing, religious organizations, and just plain ol' hospitality and generosity can largely help alleviate the plight of the poor. When America is bereft of the strong union factory jobs that used to put food on the table, and savings in the bank, it's no surprise that we're all struggling to the extent that we can't adequately help each other. Hence, the all of the sudden need for massive social programs, UBI, etc.
I would LOVE smaller government. Tighter, more efficient, more transparent, more effective, you name it. Let's just kill and gut every elite and politician out there, start paying ourselves living wages to create a strong middle class again. Government can get a lot smaller when we don't actually have a need for a larger government.
Ultimately the problem is corrupt human beings. People so faulty by design that they should be put down Spartan style. It's the fact that the majority of us are incapable of dealing with the threat represented by having the sociopathic and deeply avaricious become the scourge of the c-suites, elites, and politicians that keeps us where we are. Our own good nature prevents us from expelling the evil abhorrent filth that the elites represent. We're unable to defend ourselves against it.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by captain normal on Saturday April 21 2018, @12:30AM
"Let's just kill and gut every elite and politician out there"...How, if you don't kill off all their bosses, is that going to do any good Just yesterday, Randall Stephenson CEO of ATT pressured the Justice Department to allow it to swallow up Time Warner. ATT was broken up years ago for monopolistic and unfair business practices yet here is the giant zombie rising from the grave out to destroy all the good from years of somewhat real competition. Wonder just how much ATT has put out to politicians? Not only money, but also golf junkets, fishing trips etc?
The Musk/Trump interview appears to have been hacked, but not a DDOS hack...more like A Distributed Denial of Reality.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 20 2018, @10:52PM (1 child)
Ideally we'd just pass a bill to eliminate a bunch of government agencies, but there is normally opposition. How to you propose to crush that opposition?
That is, lay out a plan to eliminate the EPA or the Department of Education. Politically, how would you accomplish that?
It's easy to complain, but actually getting the job done isn't so easy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 21 2018, @07:14AM
I recall a certain Energy Secretary ran on the platform of eliminating 2, or was it 3, agencies. It didn't attract many votes, if you recall.
Explain your idea, win the votes. THAT is how you have to do things BECAUSE it is slow and difficult.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 21 2018, @04:16AM (1 child)
How else should they get rid of the awful agencies? Lots of those agencies mostly exist for their own benefit, sucking up all the money they can get. What little they get done is mostly harmful to our freedom and to our economy.
If enough people in congress would just vote to kill the agencies, we'd get it done that way. Instead we have to go through an absurd little dance, putting people who despise the agencies in charge of them.
Quit resisting. MAGA. It's good for you. This... it's like trying to get a kid to brush his teeth or to not live on a diet of 100% cinnamon pop tarts. THIS IS GOOD FOR YOU.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 21 2018, @07:18AM
"If enough people vote..."
BINGO I think you finally got it :) Congratulations!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 20 2018, @08:31PM (1 child)
Impressive guy: majors in Economics, Psychology, and Business, and has an MBA.
Real hardcore science-y material. NOT
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 21 2018, @07:25AM
We needed who will trust his gut feelings about things, like launching people into orbit. Not some namby pamby guy who reads the instruments. Haven't you watched ANY movies about space flight?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by krishnoid on Friday April 20 2018, @10:31PM (4 children)
Maybe that's what he actually meant when he talked about 'draining the swamp'. It seems like what we had here, was a failure to communicate.
(Score: 4, Informative) by requerdanos on Saturday April 21 2018, @12:27AM (3 children)
If intelligence and skill in government was the will of the voters, which I doubt, then Trump was a strange choice for them to make.
(No, he's not secretly a genius with a master plan so complicated that it just looks stupid. Hanlon's razor and all.)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 21 2018, @04:07AM (2 children)
You could take a Bushism and apply it to Trump: "They misunderestimated me."
He has caught so many people off guard, to his advantage, that at some point you have to admit it isn't accidental.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 21 2018, @07:31AM (1 child)
I think we have found the Constitution has a ton of holes in it and Common Decency is not as strong a force as sometimes imagined.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday April 21 2018, @02:19PM
Welcome to 200 years of US history.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 20 2018, @08:28PM (4 children)
It should be illegal to base a vote on anything except what's in the bill being voted on.
(Score: 2, Offtopic) by realDonaldTrump on Friday April 20 2018, @08:53PM
I don't call him Bill, I call him Jim.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Friday April 20 2018, @09:18PM
How could you possibly enforce that kind of rule?
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by vux984 on Friday April 20 2018, @10:07PM
'votes as leverage' is pretty much the basis of politics and a necessary element of reaching compromise and effective government.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 21 2018, @07:33AM
It should be illegal to make sausage out of anything except the finest quality meats.
Fixed that for you.