Elon Hired Gerst
Looks like Gerst is really taking his new job at @SpaceX seriously. pic.twitter.com/KuKHkpqqUQ
— NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) February 11, 2020
Looks like Gerst is really taking his new job at @SpaceX seriously. pic.twitter.com/KuKHkpqqUQ
— NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) February 11, 2020
This is truly awesome news. No one knows the pros and cons of SLS and commercial like Gerst. He is respected on the Hill. This bodes so well for SpaceX.
He’ll have to be a bit careful about talking to people he knows on the Hill. There are some laws about lobbying immediately after leaving federal employment. Consulting for SpaceX isn’t a problem. Even taking a full-time job with them is fine, as is writing some op-ed pieces which Congressmen (or their staff) may read and take very seriously. Calling up a friend in Congress might not be, depending on what they talked about. Some of SpaceX’ competitors have some good lawyers. Fair or not, those people will be keeping an eye out for anything they can call uncompetitive practices.
Isn’t he prohibited from influenceing NASA employees for two years under the ethics rules?
I think it’s something like that, but “influencing” is vague and the law is specific. I’m almost certain writing an op-ed or making a presentation at a conference is quite legal, and it could influence government employees. Private conversations might be a different matter, unless they could convince people they were just old friends talking about their favorite sports teams, or something similar. My point was that there are laws on the subject and he’ll need to be careful about the details.
This appears to be the most recent summary of the restriction. Note however he has a contract to be a consultant for SpaceX on reliability, which is not the same as being an employee.
https://fas.org/sgp/crs/mis…
maybe after all those years managing human spaceflight he wanted to visit some of the places he couldn’t as HEO lead 🙂 it is an interesting play by Elon. Gerst helps with the final paperwork negotiations for commercial crew and then adds credibility for the next starship update presentation.
I found this article about it:
https://www.bloomberg.com/n…
This is getting interesting.
He is a very cautious guy, so maybe that will help Space X. His 14 years in his Headquarters position was pretty significant, but on the other hand he has never really been successful getting anything new off the ground so it will be a different experience for him. The closest he came was Space-X and Boeing CST, but I am not sure they will have succeeded because of him. He has little development experience. He came into Mir midway through that program. He came into Shuttle well into that program and got out just before the accident, then he took over in DC and was the one who said Shuttle could not be fixed so needed to be terminated (a lot of people disagreed with him) and shut it down quickly so that he could use the money for Ares, Constellation and Orion(a lot of people disagreed with him on that) and all that money does not seem to have helped them. For projects that use a lot of reflown hardware they are way way behind where they should have been by now, and have used tens of billions more than they should have cost. He took over ISS after a lot of money problems and promptly shut down Hab, Centrifuge, and other modules that were further from completion but critical to ISS long term importance. He tried to shut down AMS. He tried to shut down Cupola but ESA had a surprise for him with a barter.
Something tells me he will have a more difficult time shutting down Musk’s projects.
This is all about connections and credibility, and it’s a good thing.
I think it is a good thing he finally left NASA. I think it was way overdue. How they could put someone with so little DDT&E experience into the leadership at a critical period when NASA needed to move forward just astounds me-and then let him sit there while nothing moved forward. I know people adored him but the people who adored him were mainly the people he “took care of” out of his operations community, who he kept putting in charge of things they knew nothing about, and why NASA human space is in the dismal shape it has been in.There were a lot of much better and more capable people passed over out of other areas. Opportunities lost for them and for NASA.
(a lot of people disagreed with him)
Yeah, but those people were wrong.
But fair points on development experience and his inherent political caution. And the Centrifuge Module, which so many of us sadly regret.
Gerst provides one thing of value, connections to Congress.
More than just connections, he can give advice on dealings with Congress, WH, NASA, DOD etc. SpaceX already has several years of experience with that but expert advice is always beneficial.
Much more than just connections. Gerst’s opinion is respected by a whole lot of folks in this industry. Power move by Elon.
I think Gerst is too old now to don the space suit and take the ride up. But he might try it on just for a photo op! :o)
Gerst and I are the same age, John Glen was 10 years older than Gerst is now. Just sayin’.
Lets start a campaign for Elon to send Gerst into orbit to ISS!
I think Elon should fly Keith!