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NASA Has An Administrator Again

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
April 23, 2018
Filed under
NASA Has An Administrator Again

Vice President Pence Swears in New NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine (with video)
“It is a great privilege for me to be here today, to be able to usher in on behalf of the President of the United States what we believe is a new chapter of renewed American leadership in space with the swearing-in of the newest Administrator of NASA, Jim Bridenstine,” said Vice President Pence.”
Message from the Administrator: Greetings From Jim Bridenstine
“Greetings! It is my great pleasure to join the NASA team today. In the last few days, I have heard numerous times, “welcome to the NASA family.” It truly feels like a family, and I am humbled to be a part of it. I want to thank the President and Vice President for the confidence they have placed in me and the entire NASA family as we continue NASA’s critical missions. I also want to thank Robert Lightfoot for his strong leadership as the Acting Administrator during a time of transition and for his decades of service to NASA and our nation. His legacy is one of commitment to our mission and leadership in all capacities. NASA has a history of great leaders from the early days of Hugh Dryden and James Webb to our most recent leaders, Sean O’Keefe, Michael Griffin, and Charlie Bolden. I will do my best to serve our storied agency to the utmost of my abilities as we reach for new heights and reveal the unknown for the benefit of humankind. NASA represents the best of our country. We lead, we discover, we pioneer, and we inspire. I look forward to our journey together. Ad astra, Jim Bridenstine”

Keith’s note: I took this picture in the “press spray” today at NASA HQ of the all hands senior staff meeting with newly sworn-in NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine and Vice President Pence. This all happened at the last second. We did not expect this kind of access and then suddenly one of the VP’s press people was escorting us past lots of security check points. FWIW everyone in the room seemed to be happy that the leadership issue had been settled and that Bridenstine is on board. At the meeting Pence said that President Trump wanted Bridenstine “in the Oval Office before the day is out”.

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

13 responses to “NASA Has An Administrator Again”

  1. RocketScientist327 says:
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    Shame it took so long. The first year has been wasted. At least we have an administrator. Let’s hope Mr. Bridenstine can accomplish the goals and philosophies of NASA.

    Lots of work to clean up.

    • JadedObs says:
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      “The first year has been wasted. ” – are you referring to NASA or Trump? What did you expect?

      • Granit says:
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        Politics held this nomination up for much longer than needed. The Democrats are not supporting any Trump nominations regardless of any wider impact. It really is a mess…..

        • PsiSquared says:
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          This is no different than what Republicans did under Obama. Does the name Gorsuch ring a bell? Let’s be clear and honest: both parties play the same game.

          With that said, Bridenstine’s positions on a number of topics in the past merited extra scrutiny. Here’s hoping that Bridenstine will actually do his job as he should and won’t play politics. NASA needs an administrator, not another presidential enabler or another department head confused about what his duties are.

          • Bulldog says:
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            President Obama’s selections were generally approved at a higher rate. Below is a comparison of each President’s nominations vs. approvals at the same time in their respective administrations. It is true, however, that the Trump administration lags that of Obama in the total number of nominations made by this time.

            Nominations Approvals %
            Trump 671 326 48.5
            Obama 696 467 67.0

          • Michael Spencer says:
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            False equivalence in the name of fairness simply muddies the water.

          • PsiSquared says:
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            Which false equivalence would that be?

    • Michael Spencer says:
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      Let’s check in next year at this time and see if anything’s different.

      • Matthew Black says:
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        Maybe. But by 2020; would Bridenstine be a ‘lame duck’ Administrator? 2021 will give us our real answers.

        • Michael Spencer says:
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          Good questions, Matthew. In a perfect world, Mr. B will turn out to be just the ticket: a smart, likable, and effective leader who is renominated by the next President (R or D).

          On the one hand NASA and similar Agencies could/ should be run by apolitical and very well qualified folks. The idea would be similar to the County Manger system that we have here in my part of SW Florida. It keeps most of the nonsense away from effectively running the County.

          On the other hand, the furor over this placement is a simple personification of a political system at work, and to that extent, is desirable. Personally I would favor this last approach, were it only tempered with very high qualification standards (which it is not).

          And, on the third hand, I am not in charge.

  2. DougSpace says:
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    I just hope that his political opponents in Congress won’t feel the need to oppose Bridenstine’s work just to prove that NASA shouldn’t become politicized — ironic.

  3. Doc H. Chen says:
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    In God we trust the NASA’s new Administrator and hope the
    best he will do.

    1. Stop the out of date and waste programs,

    2. Perform the budget and costing savings,

    3. Pay less and do more for the space flights.

    4. Start the new reusable space flight administration.

    Make Space Flight Great Again.

  4. MountainHighAstro says:
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    Some unfortunate press has followed this nomination. The authors writing articles that demean Mr. Bridenstine for not being a scientist ignore the facts that NASA is a very large (bloated) organization that doesn’t necessarily need a science buff at the helm. More often than not, scientists and engineers are the wrong people to steer such an unwieldy ship. Let’s hope all hope Jim’s aim is steady and true