The White House is planning on nominating Rep. Jim Bridenstine, R-Okla., for the head of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Bridenstine, a former active-duty U.S. Navy pilot, has been outspoken in his support for making the U.S. a leader in civilian and military space programs. He has worked on bills supporting manned moon exploration and mining of materials.
"Space is critically involved in improving all of our lives," Bridenstine said at a Colorado conference earlier in 2017, according to the Journal.
The congressman's priorities for space include tracking space debris, transferring the primary responsibility for preventing satellite collisions away from the Pentagon, and working on new air-traffic control procedures to prepare for the expected increase in commercial space launches.
Some industry officials are concerned that Bridenstine could scale back exploration to deep space and eventually to Mars. Bridenstine has called for focusing on the moon first. Bipartisan support is growing for that approach, the Journal reported.
President Donald Trump could nominate John Schumacher, a former NASA chief of staff, as the No. 2 NASA official, to show conventional space contractors such as Boeing and Lockheed that some continuity and management experience remains in the space program.
NASA Watch, an independent site that covers the space administration, claimed on Aug. 15 that Bridenstine would be the administration's choice. "Bridenstine has a lot of interest in emerging space commerce opportunities while Schumacher has a solid aerospace background — another way that their skillsets complement each other," said NASA Watch's Keith Cowing.
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