Lee Billings has a good piece on the current state of play.
Fortunately, given the vision being displayed by wealthy entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos, we are approaching a day in which NASA and its budget will be largely irrelevant to humanity’s move into space.
Rather than sec. of state; Fixing NASA might be a good job for Mitt Romney.
NASA is drifting. What should be the govt’s role in exploring and settling the solar system? Mitt could provide the fresh perspective NASA needs and if he screws it up, Trump’s hands are clean.
“WASHINGTON — The transition team for President-elect Donald Trump has named a congressional staffer and former NASA official to the “landing team” overseeing transition planning for the space agency.
In a Nov. 29 statement, the office of President-elect Trump announced that Chris Shank will serve on the landing team for NASA, the first individual named to date to handle transition issues for the space agency. The selection came after the transition team selected several dozen other people to serve on landing teams for cabinet-level departments and other agencies.
Shank has extensive experience with NASA, both working in the agency itself as well as on Capitol Hill. He joins the transition team after serving as policy director for the House Science Committee and, before that, as deputy chief of staff for Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), the chairman of the committee. Shank also served on the committee’s staff from 2001 to 2005”
http://spacenews.com/trump-names-insider-to-lead-nasa-transition/
I’d much rather see Romney apply his great talents at a cabinet level post. No matter how much I love Space, NASA Aministrator is not a that important of a post.
I know she’s a Democrat, but I’d love to see Lori Garver as Administrator.
Mitt is a finance guy. An axeman. That’s what NASA needs. It doesn’t have to be a permanent position. He cuts the dead wood, then gets reassigned to do the same thing in other places. What he did with the olympics is a model.
The agency needs focus that only an axeman can give it.
Perfect fit. Mormon’s are all about outer space and settling planets and stuff. Mittens for space czar!
Mormon’s religious beliefs have far less negative impacts than AGW alarmists who think that by making humanity suffer it will appease mother nature and stop the climate from changing.
Chances that Romney’s religion would impact his decisions, 0%. Chances that the religion of a believer of AGW alarmism would impact their decisions, 100%.
I’d go for Garver too. Remember that Trump really isn’t a republican, he’s a nationalist. He just re-upped Preet Barra NY southern DA so being a democrat isn’t a barrier in of itself.
Harbor hurt/ruined her chances by 1) being an active supporter if Hillary, and 2) criticizing Eileen Collins for speaking at the Republican convention.
Curse you, autocorrect!
s/Harbor/Garver/
Whatever Trump does, if he wants his changes to stick around longer than his term in office he has to institutionalize the reforms. This is why I keep harping on James Bennett’s idea of a Space Guard modeled after the Coast Guard.
Want to get NASA out of earth science? Move all its earth monitoring to the Space Guard, along with the NOAA and USGS satellite operations.
Want to legitimately claim a cut to Defense without adversely affecting the core capabilities of the department? Move satellite tracking from the Air Force to the Space Guard.
Want to get rid of STS? Reduce NASA to a strictly R&D agency, exclusively launching experimental rather than operational spacecraft, change all the remaining centers to FFRDCs like JPL. The STS is intended as an operational rather than experimental vehicle, so its budget could be zeroed out.
“Want to get rid of STS? ”
I believe you are referring to SLS, right?
“Reduce NASA to a strictly R&D agency, exclusively launching experimental rather than operational spacecraft, change all the remaining centers to FFRDCs like JPL.”
Doing this against the will of Congressional Chairs controlling NASA’s budget is, …doubtful. The current status of Marshall Spaceflight Center gives Senator Shelby immense leverage as to who inside Alabama gets money from its budget.
“The STS is intended as an operational rather than experimental vehicle, so its budget could be zeroed out.”
Again, if you are talking about the SLS pork rocket, few expect an operational anything out of it. It is there to let Senator Shelby hand out money to people he wants bending the knee to him until he dies.
“Want to get NASA out of earth science? Move all its earth monitoring to the Space Guard, along with the NOAA and USGS satellite operations.”
Better to hand it all to NOAA, including whatever portions of NASA have been helping NOAA operate the sats. Space Guard has far bigger fish to fry. If it is to make spaceflight safer and more useful to both national defense and to US society’s growth into the Solar System, then it should be focused on Space, not Earth. Dis-establishing James Hansen’s funding hierarchy for Earth Science is the truly needed change in Earth Science. A move to NOAA, under a manager competent to do the job will be enough to give them a chance to do that, by forcing everyone being funded to make new connections in wider networks, that don’t exclude skeptics.
As to Romney at NASA, …no. Romney at VA??? Yes! He’s a government healthcare freak in the first place, so the one part of healthcare that is going to stay inside government should be his bailiwick.
While I would love to see Lori at NASA’s helm, Shelby and his buddies would not tolerate her. She alone would be a deal-breaker for any deals our new deal-making President will want to do. Dava Newman would be an excellent choice, IMHO, having developed several good ideas with deeply needed skintight spacesuits herself, and already being an associate administrator.
Sarah Palin at VA is a much better choice. Mitt lead us right to Obamacare. We want Mitt where he can’t make things worse. Better not to use him at all rather than that. But not using him makes him the opposition which we don’t need.
Mitt can be either a valuable asset or a big problem. Making him sec of state requires holding a short leash which is a problem Trump doesn’t need.
Palin at VA? Don’t think so. Bobby Jindal would be a good choice – he made his name in LA by reforming the state-funded hospitals and health clinics.
Either would be fine. It’s a good time to bring some of the back bench forward as well.
“Mitt lead us right to Obamacare.”
Well, I live in Massachusetts and any Republican who wants to be Governor (or a Senator or Rep. to DC) here has to prove in some way that they’re really a Democrat in disguise (even if they aren’t, privately). Romneycare was Mitt’s way to ‘prove’ that.
Yes indeed I was referring to the SLS. Ten years ago I would have made the same argument about STS. In fact, I did, many times, which is probably why I flubbed the acronym.
I’d like to see Jeff Greason at the helm at NASA. With experience in government at the FAA-AST, working at Rotary and starting XCOR, and being on the 2009 Augustine committee he’s got the relevant experience to transition NASA to increasing use of the private sector. Also his 2011 ISDC keynote speech clearly laid out why NASA’s human spaceflight program should exist at all.
My thought is NASA needs the same sort of shakeup that Trump will give the country as a whole. I like Mitt but not if he’s going to undercut Trump. Sec of state is too important for someone who can’t be fully trusted, yet it seems obvious Trump wants him in in some capacity.. We all like Garver, but she’s not going to shake things up like an outsider businessman could.
Shutting down SLS is going to take somebody like Romney (if even he could do it) but his chances are better than any insider.
It seems like a twofer to me.
Absent large increases in funding to build payloads, SLS is “Dead Booster Walking.” I’d figure the dummy launch in a couple of years, then the Jupiter probe, then maybe a cislunar hab, then the last set of engines would end up on a museum piece around 2030. Hopefully Trump will commit to leasing a commercial LEO space station and purchasing commercial flights to the cislunar station, which would probably be tended, without permanent inhabitants for some time to come.
A businessman like Romney understands the fallacy of sunk costs. To fix NASA is going to take pain and somebody that can deal with the resulting focus of hate. Romney can do that. Afterwhich he would be perfectly set up to rinse. Wash. Repeat at other agencies. This would also put the fear of god into other agencies at the mere whisper that Romney might be assigned to give them the same treatment.
It takes the heat off Trump so he can address all the issues rather than being bogged down on each one. Romney is the perfect axeman and should be used as such.
Unfortunately, Walking Dead Boosters (and Orions) can walk for decades if they provide enough pork. The problem, of course, is that their mega-cash consumption crowds out work on the tech really needed for human activity beyond LEO. So they walk forever and never actually get used for their nominal purpose. The Hill considers this perfect. The votes must flow…
There is a solution: find alternative pork attractive enough for Sen. Shelby, and “un-delude” those under the Apolloist spell such as Culbertson. Good luck with that.
The Space Guard is a way to do that. Cutting most of NASA doesn’t mean that physical buildings at the cut centers go away. Cut Marshall out of NASA and headquarter the Space Guard there, and Shelby is out of the equation.
Culberson. Culbertson is the ex-astro at ATK. Of course, CulberTson no doubt supports SLS too.
I would go with someone with a lot of experience in game theory and project management. You might be able to find someone like this inside the industry but it would also be beneficial to hire an outsider who views things differently. NASA needs someone who can identify what the real problems are, asks the right questions, implements an appropriate vision to solve those problems, and holds people accountable.
We really need someone that views NASA’s role as enabling long term strategic advantages for our country and our populace over our competitors.
Maybe that is the role of congress and the President though.
Everything right but the last sentence Wodun. Senate! LS is how we got this mess. NASA is unfocused. Breaking it into smaller pieces and removing its competition with commercial vendors is the solution.
This govt. actually needs dozens of axemen. Mitt and Sarah would both be a good start. Sarah at VA rather than Mitt because both are proven entities.
“the whims of Republican majorities”, “But that’s just logic”, “Of course, no one really knows which of Trump’s ever-changing and often-contradictory policy statements should be taken seriously. ”
Gotta love that unbiased journalism.