What A NASA Administrator Actually Does
What NASA loses without a permanent leader, The Verge
“Despite the backlash to Bridenstine’s politician status, being the NASA administrator means mostly working with politicians, says Garver. “I do think it is more a political job than an engineering job. Neither Charlie [Bolden] nor I did any engineering,” she says. “You can’t be an astrophysicist and a propulsion engineer; you got to trust your people to do that. Being able to advocate for your agency on the hill is a big part of it.” .. “Because [Lightfoot] isn’t the president’s person, there is a loss of accountability,” Jim Muncy, founder of PoliSpace, a space policy consulting agency, tells The Verge. “Having the president’s own representative to guide the day-to-day implementation of the policy is part of that accountability.”
– Shh! Bill Nelson Openly Champions Space Legislation Co-authored By Jim Bridenstine, earlier post
– This Is What Happens When People Try To Work Together in DC, earlier post
– Sen. Nelson’s Effort To Undermine NASA, earlier post
– Why Should One Senator Boss NASA Around?, earlier post
The partisanship has never been so bad.
I wrote a novel and decided to delete it.
tldr;
The gridlock and political gamesmanship is alive and well inside the 495.
I think that is a fair statement that a person the president selected (or is happy to keep) is going to have a better working relationship than someone else. And yes their job is mostly political and not technical (like any CEO). In addition, and just as important, they are also the cultural leader for the organization which seems left out of this article.
The Administrator job is entirely political, and zero technical. It’s a major structural problem if the organization needs the Administrator to weigh in on technical issues.