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WASHINGTON – The Biden administration is likely to put more emphasis on Earth science at NASA and slow down the agency’s plans to return humans to the moon, and will do so with a new person at the helm of the agency.
Biden’s campaign declared victory in his presidential campaign on November 7 after multiple projections that Joe Biden would win Pennsylvania, giving the former vice president more than the 270 electoral votes needed to be elected president. However, President Donald Trump’s campaign has yet to give way.
With its declaration of victory, Biden’s campaign has begun to implement its transition plans, including a website outlining the incoming administration’s four priorities: COVID-19, economic recovery, racial equity, and climate change.
While the transition site doesn’t explicitly state its plans for NASA, many observers expect it to play a role in that fourth priority, climate change. That stems from a line on the July Democratic Party platform that reads: “Democrats also support strengthening the Earth observation missions of NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to better understand how climate change is doing. affecting our home planet. “
“In my opinion, managing the Earth’s capacity to support human life and biodiversity will likely dominate a civil space agenda for a Biden-Harris administration,” said Lori Garver, former NASA deputy administrator during the Obama administration, at a 7 of November. speech at the SpaceVision 2020 conference of Students for the Exploration and Development of space.
Garver, speaking at the conference at the same time as Biden and his running mate, Kamala Harris, delivered speeches that marked his victory, did not predict how the new administration would implement those plans. “NASA is a national asset, and if properly directed and incentivized, we can make significant contributions to sustaining humanity,” he said.
Any emphasis on Earth science can be done at the expense of the Artemis program. The Democratic platform backed “NASA’s work to return Americans to the moon and further to Mars, taking the next step in exploring our solar system,” but did not explicitly endorse the 2024 deadline for return. of humans announced by Vice President Mike Pence in March 2019.
“I don’t know of anyone who thinks we’ll get there by 2024,” Garver said. That skepticism, he said, is based on the limited funds allocated for the effort to date, with most of the nearly $ 30 billion needed to achieve that 2024 goal still to be spent. “No matter who won, this was going to be an impossible goal.”
Others have expressed similar concerns. “While there is a lot of enthusiasm in Congress, there is not always consensus on when and what time frame we should have to meet this Artemis goal,” said Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Senior Trade Committee Member of the Senate. , in a November 6 speech at a University of Washington conference. Doing so by 2024, he said, “would require an enormous amount of resources.”
“I think the 2024 deadline has always been a bit dubious, just given the history of large-scale space projects,” said Wendy Whitman Cobb, a professor at the Air Force’s School for Advanced Air and Space Studies. USA, in a later session. at the University of Washington conference. “A Biden administration might feel a little better letting that happen a little.”
However, Garver cautioned that simply hitting the deadline won’t save money in the long run. “A transition team will have to think about that,” he said.
A NASA transition team, formally known as the agency review team, for the incoming Biden administration has yet to begin its work. The Washington Post reported on November 8 that the General Services Administration, which manages resources used in presidential transitions, had not yet signed the documentation authorizing Biden’s team to access those resources.
“Transition teams really come to see how things are going and make recommendations going forward,” recalled Garver, who led NASA’s transition team for the incoming Obama administration after the 2008 election. At the time, The focus was on the previous effort to return humans to the moon, the Constellation program, which was “off course,” he said.
“If people come in and Artemis is on track to receive this small amount of money that they have received thus far,” he said, “I would say go for it.” However, he acknowledged that it was “a bit difficult” to imagine a Biden administration continuing a program closely linked to President Trump. “I’m not making predictions because anything could happen.”
Leadership change
A new administration is likely to mean a new administrator for NASA. Current manager Jim Bridenstine said Daily aerospace November 8 he believed “he would not be the right person” to lead NASA in the Biden administration, arguing that NASA should have someone in charge with a “close relationship” with the White House.
Bridenstine, confirmed by the Senate in a close party line vote in April 2018, has since cultivated support from both parties, including winning members of Congress who opposed his nomination. Some, particularly on social media, advocated that the incoming Biden administration keep Bridenstine.
At the same time, however, there has been much speculation about who might succeed Bridenstine as administrator. Among the names circulated are Wanda Austin, former president and CEO of The Aerospace Corporation; Pam Melroy, a former astronaut who later held positions with the FAA and DARPA; and Wanda Sigur, former vice president and general manager of civil space at Lockheed Martin. Another possibility is Rep. Kendra Horn (D-Okla.), Chairperson of the House Science Committee’s space subcommittee, who lost her bid for a second term on Nov. 3.
Jim Morhard, the deputy administrator who was confirmed by Congress in October 2018, is also likely to leave the agency. He did not explicitly discuss his plans in a November 7 speech at the Space Generation Advisory Council’s SpaceGen Summit, but it seemed acknowledge would leave NASA.
“Things are changing in the United States, we know that,” he said. “I certainly look forward to the future and what comes next.”
