Leaders of NASA sit in a clumsy place. Whereas they’re the pinnacle of a widely known group, they’re typically not essentially the most well-known particular person within the company. Extra folks most likely know the names of Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, the astronauts presently “stranded” on the International Space Station, than Invoice Nelson, the present NASA administrator.
Astronauts is perhaps the folks most carefully related to NASA, however directors are arguably extra integral to getting packages off the bottom.
As a space policy expert, I’ve seen the affect that particular person NASA leaders can have on NASA’s success. They play an important function in deciding what NASA does and the way it does it, and so they additionally assist construct political help for house exploration.
The function of the NASA administrator
NASA is an independent government bureaucracy, that means that it doesn’t fall below one of many cupboard departments—just like the Division of State. As such, the chief of NASA is an administrator moderately than a secretary.
Though the identify differs, a NASA administrator has comparable duties and tasks as a cupboard secretary. They assist make selections about which main packages and insurance policies must be pursued and the way they’re carried out. NASA directors work with companions in business, together with the business house business. Additionally they symbolize NASA whereas presenting to Congress and through diplomatic relations with different international locations.
NASA directors are additionally accountable to elected officers. Directors are appointed by the president however have to be confirmed by the Senate. Congress has a great deal to say concerning the finances that NASA will get every year. Additionally they should authorize main packages, like the Artemis program, which goals to return the U.S. and its companions to the Moon.
Though main selections like these are sometimes out of their fingers, NASA directors nonetheless have numerous affect behind the scenes. James Webb, NASA’s second administrator, who held the workplace between 1961 and 1968, is commonly credited as being integral in sustaining political help for the Apollo program.
Dan Goldin, the longest-serving NASA administrator, helped save the Worldwide House Station from cancellation within the early Nineties by convincing the Clinton administration to ask Russia’s participation.
As administrator within the early 2000s, Mike Griffin helped jump-start the business house business by instituting the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program. This program supplied funding to corporations who would first ship cargo to the Worldwide House Station, after which later, astronauts.
Nevertheless, not all directors are as productive as Webb, Goldin or Griffin. Richard Truly was fired from the post by George H.W. Bush in 1992 after disagreeing with the administration’s 1989 proposal to return the U.S. to the Moon.
Charles Bolden discovered controversy when he advised Al-Jazeera that President Barack Obama instructed him to make outreach to Muslim international locations one among NASA’s priorities.
Each Actually and Bolden had been astronauts earlier than changing into administrator. However that doesn’t imply that former astronauts are by some means worse within the place than folks coming from different backgrounds. NASA directors have traditionally had all kinds of backgrounds, together with scientists, engineers and even former members of Congress.
The present NASA administrator, Bill Nelson, is each a former senator and a former astronaut, having gone to house on the shuttle Columbia in January 1986.
Main questions forward
Regardless of the administrator, the approaching years will carry huge selections for whoever is subsequent.
With the recent announcement that the around-the-moon mission of Artemis II is delayed till the spring of 2026, NASA nonetheless has a lot work to do in its Artemis program. Major issues remain to be addressed with the crew car, together with issues with the capsule’s warmth protect and digital methods.
Additional, the success of business house corporations like SpaceX means there might be more pressure on NASA to seek out methods to scale back prices by leveraging the companies of business corporations.
Extra broadly, many different international locations want to how the U.S. is working in house. Other than what some see as a new space race with China, questions on space debris, space traffic management, and space resources will contain cooperation with different international locations and would require administrator involvement.
Lastly, the NASA administrator should cope with a recurring situation: fewer resources. Traditionally, NASA has appropriated less money than vital to hold out all of the issues it has been charged to do.
This case results in exhausting selections about what sorts of missions to help. House science and robotic exploration typically lose out to issues like human spaceflight.
Regardless that the subsequent administrator might want to make exhausting selections, the subsequent few years might be full of pleasure because the U.S. and others pursue more and more bold targets.
Wendy Whitman Cobb is a professor of technique and safety research at Air University.
This text is republished from The Conversation below a Inventive Commons license. Learn the original article.
