Keith’s note: Apparently Janet Petro did not ‘Embrace The Challenge’ hard enough when it came to getting people at NASA to quit – thus leading to her replacement – even thought the NASA website says she is still in charge. At least that is what senior NASA leadership tells me. Interim (i.e part time) NASA Administrator (and also Secretary of Transportation) Sean Duffy is a 100% Administration loyalist so he can be expected to carry out (or delegate) whatever actions the White House tells NASA to do – without question. Since Duffy already has a day job, this means that NASA Chief of Staff Brian Hughes is the de facto Administrator. As such NASA is a managerial subsidiary of DOT for the time being. There are plans for Secretary-Administrator Duffy and NASA Deputy Associate Administrator Casey Swails to make some sort of fireside chat video on Friday that will be available to all NASA employees. As such you can expect the budget cutting and personnel deletion to continue at Warp 9.
Biologist, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Biologist and Payload integrator, Editor of NASAWatch.com and Astrobiology.com, Lapsed climber, Explorer, Synaesthete, Former Challenger Center board member... More by Keith Cowing
My only issue with the idea the administration felt like Janet didn’t encourage RIFs enough is that they still allowed her to return to her KSC position. Why do that if you’re that deeply unsatisfied? I think it’s more likely POTUS and crew doesn’t even know who she is.