Bridenstine to Leave NASA Administrator Post
by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor
In a decision that has disappointed his supporters, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine plans to leave his position even if president-elect Joe Biden asked him to stay.
Irene Klotz broke the news in Aviation Week. The story is behind a paywall, but Klotz did tweet:
“You need somebody who has a close relationship with the president of the U.S. … somebody trusted by the administration…. including OMB, National Space Council, National Security Council. I think I would not be the right person for that in a new administration –Bridenstine
Agency administrators usually change when a new president comes in, particularly if he is from a different party. Bridenstine is a former Republican Congressman from Oklahoma appointed by President Donald Trump, who was defeated by his Democratic opponent Biden last week.
A prominent exception to the practice was Dan Goldin, who was appointed NASA administrator by Republican President George H.W. Bush but kept on by the Democratic administration of Bill Clinton in 1993. He left NASA in 2001 during the first year of President George W. Bush’s term.
Bridenstine would presumably serve at least until Biden is sworn in as president at noon on Jan. 20, 2021. If he departed at that point or earlier, an acting administrator would oversee the space agency until the Senate approves Biden’s nominee to run NASA.
Bridenstine has been popular among many in the space community for his enthusiastic promotion of NASA. There is even a petition urging the incoming administration to keep him as NASA administrator.
Bridenstine has been leading the Trump Administration’s effort to land astronauts on the moon in 2024 as part of NASA’s Artemis program. Last year, the administration moved up the target date by four years from 2028.
It’s not clear what Biden’s space policy will be when he takes office. There is speculation that the new president will continue the Artemis program with a later landing date while increasing funding for NASA’s Earth Science program.
The accelerated Artemis program was in doubt even before Biden won the presidency. The Trump Administration requested $25.2 billion for NASA’s fiscal year (FY) 202 budget, including $3.2 billion for the Human Landing System to take astronauts to the surface.
The request remains in limbo because Congress hasn’t passed a budget for FY 2021, which began on Oct. 1. Like the rest of the government, the space agency has been operating on a continuing resolution that keeps NASA’s spending at FY 2020 levels and limits its ability to begin new programs or expand existing ones.
The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives has approved only $628.2 million for HLS as part of a spending bill that would keep NASA’s budget flat at $22.6 billion.
The Senate has not passed a spending bill for NASA yet. Senators were non-committal during recent hearings, citing the COVID-19 pandemic that has severely damaged the economy and forced Congress to pass a $2 trillion bailout package.
Any differences between the House and Senate bills would be resolved by a conference committee before the budget is sent to the president.
In September, Bridenstine said NASA needed the full $3.2 billion for HLS by December, or March at the latest, to meet the 2024 landing deadline. But, prospects remain uncertain despite Bridenstine’s optimism that Congress will come through with full funding.
Democratic legislators have said the Trump Administration has not put forth either a compelling rationale or a solid plan for the 2024 landing date. They also expressed concerns about the safety of what they view as a rushed program.
Then there were the political considerations. A 2024 landing would have allowed Trump to end his second term on a high note if he had been reelected. Vice President Mike Pence could take credit for helping to guide the Artemis program as chairman of the National Space Council during his 2024 bid for the presidency.
It’s unclear whether Congress and Trump will agree on a budget before the former expires and the latter leaves office in January. Legislators might pass another continuing resolution when the current one expires in December, leaving the matter to the new Congress and president.
Democrats will continue to control the House next year. Control of the Senate will depend upon the outcome of two runoff elections in Georgia in January.
100 responses to “Bridenstine to Leave NASA Administrator Post”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Probably bailing because he still has political ambitions and is partisan – which was the original complaint against him. True to form and why a politician was always a poor choice to lead NASA.
Nonsense since he already was in Congress. If he had political ambitions another four years would have been great fir him. I thought he was a great choice fir the position. He is the only administrator in a while if ever who has political experience, an engineering background, fighter pilot credentials and last but not least a true love of aviation and space.
Let’s hope Biden does not follow Obama with more cancellations and touchy-feely outreach.
Very disappointing! If Bridenstine had stayed, it would have given Biden a chance to show bipartisanship by keeping Republican on as NASA administrator.
Just hope that Biden doesn’t do something foolish like appoint Lori Garver to the post. Her anti-lunar sentiments set NASA back by nearly a decade, IMO.
Marcel
Dana Newman.
At least she (Newman) isn’t against human spaceflight like Lori Garver has apparently become.
I used to really Like Ms. Garver due to her commercial space advocacy, but if she’s against crewed space flight now, I don’t want her. Also, she was never the most politic of people. I remember when both Boeing and SpaceX got approved by Congress for Commercial Crew (for considerably more than Congress had said they’d budget), her reaction was, “Where did that money come from?” Bolden to his credit in effect told Congress, “This is our program, two providers, and this is what it costs. Accept it, or killing American crewed spaceflight is on YOU.” That’s the kind of thing Bridenstine is even better at – understanding how Congress thinks and works, and working within that frame to get them to do things they don’t even want to do. Garver hasn’t displayed such a skill.
Meanwhile, Ms. Newman (like Ms. Garver) has relevant experience as Deputy Administrator.
However, I have to say, I was disappointed that seemingly nothing at all came out of her time as Deputy Administrator in relation to her signature project, a mechanical skin pressure spacesuit. She didn’t have a ton of time in office, but…nothing?
Personally, I’d like to see Bridenstine stay on, though I’m sure there are plenty of capable people on the Biden side waiting in the wings that I’m not familiar with yet
Lori can speak for herself and has in a NY Times piece on the future of NASA and HSF …but I think you are mischaracterizing her beliefs
what she is saying in a nutshell…is that human spaceflight should be done for reasons which have some economic value behind them…not just blindly spending money
If so, good – depending on the details, I can support that
Interesting historical context. Did Bolden really deliver such an ultimatum?
Funny how today’s celebrators of Commercial Crew program keep forgetting how big a bite of the apple that Boeing got! Would there even be a Dragon 2 today, were it not for all the money dumped on Boeing for the CST-100?
I’m happy for the Commercial Crew program. But in the long run I’m not sure how much difference it is going to make. There is so much potential Dragon 2 has, that is going to just get wasted instead.
For SpaceX, Dragon 2 was a diversion and a dead-end. No doubt nice extra money to get from NASA, but irrelevant to the longer term goals of SpaceX.
For NASA, they finally escape their captive status from the Russians, and lower the cost of ISS operations. But even though the potential is there to use Dragon 2 for more than just a LEO taxi and bust wide open immediate sustainable lunar operations, NASA will never do so. NASA and Congress made a lunar suicide pact: irrevocably tying the fate of lunar operations to SLS and Orion.
DAva Newman?
android spellcheck.
argh.
Dava Newman.
Maybe Biden should appoint former astronaut, Scott Kelly, to the position. I’m sure he’d get support for the position from his twin brother, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly:-)
Marcel
How about appointing Mark Kelly instead?
good choice.
If he’s going to get back into politics it’ll be interesting to see how he does it. Oklahoma is filled with GOP office holders, so he’d have to start challenging people in primaries. Back to the House? The Senate? Governor? Surely anything less than the Governor in a state office would be a step down. It’s either those options or go to work for a contractor.
He is a Major in the Oklahoma Air Guard so it would be very easy for him to move into a similar position at the U.S.S.F. He is the entrepreneurial type so he would fit right in with a startup service establishing itself. His Congressional/NASA connections would be a asset to them.
Oh, now there’s a thought. Kudos for your foresight if that’s where he goes.
he is going to be many rushing to take over the nut job wing of the GOP
They came out in force in Phoenix. A friend of mine working the count in Maracopa county counted over 20 AR class and a few AK’s over the shoulders of Trump fans. She took a pic of one guy with a 100 round transparent mag with rounds clearly loaded, as she was escorted in by police. I love how the political right is crying the victim that it will be the Left who riots if they ‘lose’ and then cry that they are perfectly innocent after having tried to overthrow a state government, plotted to kidnap a governor, and show up at the polls and ballot processing stations with complete infantry rifle teams. Of course my favorite is the ‘Stop the Count’ movement in Michigan while at the same time and with no sense of irony cry ‘Keep Counting’ in Arizona. I’m remembering the uproar when that black guy from Philadelphia’s MOVE was photographed with a club outside a polling station back in 2012. They said it was the end of the world.
However to your point about Bridenstine’s next step. I give him much more credit than you did. I followed his stewardship of NASA quite closely, and he is on my C-SPAN watch list. His testimony, and all his speeches indicate to me that he’s a very sane and respectable conservative. I don’t think he’ll go where you think he’ll go. But politics is politics. When he was in charge of NASA I saw a very honorable man and a job well done. I hope you’re wrong that he’ll align with the looneys. But as always we’ll see. If I’m right about him, I hope he rises to functional high position in the party. The US needs a functional conservative political wing. What it needs is someone who can lead the political wing’s hoi poli to sanity as effectively as Donald Trump led it chaos. I think Mit Romney and Jim Bridenstine might be those kinds of men.
this is trump world. if anything this was an election of facts V fiction
Trump world is good at making accusations and instantly overnight turning them into reality and then acting as if they were true. this is how he has treated the virus, the economy and yes his flight of fantasy to the moon.
and to make sure that we all know that their reality “works” they come out with their MAGA hats, guns, flags and loud voices and just try and bang at everyone until viola…reality is now what they say it was
the election is a dissapointment to me in that the Dems failed utterly at everything but the national level. basically what happened in Biden world is that moderate republicans, the Alepo Johnson wing, and a higher then 16 Dem vote turnout…got Biden/Harris in (praise the creator) but well failed the rest of the way down the line…except in heavily black areas…like GA
I see the squabbling has already started among blacks and Latinos as to “who won it” when they cannot grasp that this squabbling is part of what lost it
But I will take what I can get and ditching trump is good enough
as for Jimbo. Jimbo appealed to fruits and nuts and in the space community…people who seem to think that the Moon is still the American west and all we are waiting for is a conestoga wagon to take everyone out there…until we build the RR’s
goofy
I hope you are well. we are safe here but the virus is out of control…
Much of what you say is true. However the base process you outline for Trump’s ability to spread chaos, is base level politics. That’s how humans do it with each other. The US has done a fine job of elevating the function of government from that for a long time. …. I think we’re in for a ‘Henry Ford’ moment where Trump barricades himself in the oval office right up to the swearing in. I fully expect to see him escorted out by the very same secret service and Marines who guard him now. Maybe they’ll even carry him out on a chair just like ole’ Henry. I think we’re going to have to have a “truth and reconciliation” process after the change over. I’m expecting some serious stories to come out of the intelligence agencies and the justice department. I can’t wait to hear the real story behind the comical October surprise of Rudy reaching for his johnson when he obviously thought he was going to bed that ‘Russian reporter’.
Edit: Well he’s already started self immolating his cabinet. Sec Def fired. Who else goes between now and Jan?
I dont share your opinion of Jimbo…but obviously as well 🙂 I look at it through the partisan lens of trump and the 24 lunar goal which I think is simply useless. Time will tell about how this works out…I knew him before NASA and dont really see much value in him. he has as administrator fallen in the trump line which is “tackle the small stuff and use rhetoric for the rest”
to me…we need to know how the GA senate races work out before we can see where this thing goes…but the germans seem to think that they have a vaccine (PFizer) and if they do that could in fact be a game changer where the virus is concerned…or not if it is hard to get out…
after the GA senate races we will be able to see further…but I like you think that there is a day or reckoning coming when at some point the GOP tries to figure out collectively where Trump has taken them and who wants to stay there and who wants to go some other direction…
but as for a space program…I think Brother matula is half right…in that NASA policy needs to divest itself of particular “goals” and instead should start to try and subsidize promising commercial efforts to do things with commercial value. SpaceX is close to closing the business case for the Falcon series of boosters with moving on to Starship…and NASA should be helping that as long as it is suceeding.
but I think that is a long way from “wagons ho to the moon”.
its going to be a bumpy ride nevertheless. my line of work, airlines are collapsing and my ranch cannot sell beef 🙂
its all exciting
the rudy story is fascinating
2024 was too soon. But beyond ’24 it looks easier and easier. I expect by ’27 the cup of lunar capable hardware will be overflowing with systems and subsystems and the discussion will change from “Should we go to the Moon”, to “Why are we not occupying it now?”.
The reason Biden seems, for the nonce, to have succeeded while Dems mostly lost down-ballot is because the margins Trump racked up in places like PA, MI and WI were larger than the Democrats had expected and they had to fake up so many new ballots at the last minute that there was only time to check the box for Biden on most of them. As this becomes evident over the next few weeks, I expect Mr Biden’s stolen “margin of victory” to evaporate and this third coup attempt against Donald Trump to fail.
The Left is still rioting. They’ve been rioting nearly every night, sometimes in multiple cities, for months already.
Show me one single Right-wing riot?
Kyle Rittenhouse
Oh emm gee!
That’s freaking hilarious. One person does not a riot make!
In addition to that, that poor kid did nothing morally wrong, and his only legal jeopardy is an underage firearm possession charge, he is innocent of the other criminal charges against him.
I’m amazed how the insane Left have tried to turn that tubby boy-scout into Hitler. He got himself in over his head trying to do the right thing, just to be attacked by unhinged violent rioters some of whom with really scary criminal records.
https://twitter.com/stillgr…
no he is a criminal
He is not a criminal, he is the target of a politically motivated vendetta by the Left in general and the spineless Democratic officials in Kenosha, WI in particular.
Spineless my ass, they’ve stood up to the armed mobs of thugs with automatic weapons who tried to overturn the government of the state next door by force of arms.
Better check your ass. Rittenhouse was not initially charged. Then a mob of those “peaceful protestors” paid a housecall on the local D.A. and demanded Rittenhouse’s head. The D.A. proceeded to charge Rittenhouse with capital crimes. Do the math. In Kenosha, at least, the mob has already overturned the government.
As for that thing in Michigan, the kidnap plotters had no automatic weapons and their aim was apparently to get Gov. Whitmer to rescind all her goofy and capricious Covid-19-related diktats. One could say that the government of MI had already been overturned as Whitmer had been ruling by decree for some time, even defying attempts by the state Supreme Court to rein her in. The ineffectual machinations of a few disaffected yokels don’t bother me nearly as much as the, by turns, dictatorial overreaching and deliberate refusal to enforce the law we have seen in many Dem-controlled jurisdictions this year.
No automatic weapons? https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Are you really claiming those people had machine-guns? Seriously?
If those are not limited to a burst of 3 rounds, they’re automatics.
Edit: Hey, we’re both wrong check it out….
The National Firearms Act, 26 U.S.C. 5845(b), defines a machine gun to include any weapon which shoots, is designed to shoot, or can be readily restored to shoot, automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger.
So there you go. Yes, they have machine guns.
Good grief.
You don’t realize the difference between a self-loading repeater and a machine-gun? Nor the tremendous legal differences?
You know nothing about the National Firearms Act of 1934? Nothing about the Gun Control Act of 1968? Nothing about the Hughes Amendment of 1986?
Out of such ignorance comes such hysterical pronouncements as you are making about “automatics”.
Here’s one small tip for you — any firearm capable of firing a three round burst of cartridges (or even a two round burst) with a single trigger pull is still legally defined as a machine-gun under Federal Law. With all the regulations and potential legal liabilities that comes attached with such a firearm!
You claimed they did not have machine guns. which by law and even your own words …. “
Are you really claiming those people had machine-guns? Seriously?” Are saying they were not armed with automatic firearms. You can’t have it both ways. Eagleson said the guys did not have automatic weapons. Obviously they did.
Oh brother.
You fall right into the trap that anti-gun activist Josh Sugarmann predicted when he invented the big-con of “assault weapons” back in 1988. It’s con long since busted, but people like you keep falling for it.
https://www.quotes.net/quot…
Nope, I’m speaking only of function. So again, I want you on record. You are asserting those weapons are semi-automatic only. One trigger pull, one round fired. No other modes? Correct?
And you assert those were really machine-guns, correct?
Do you assert they were illegal machine-guns? Which come with a Federal penalty of 10 years in Federal prison? To say nothing of similar penalties in State Law?
Or do you claim they were legal machineguns? Which cost tens of thousands of dollars and require special licensing from the Federal Government?
I say, they were plain jane ordinary rifles, shotguns, and handguns.
Given the fact that they’re law abiding citizens of these United States, I believe you.
I think it’s pretty damned funny one of the group which has you so flustered was an anti-Trump anarchist!
https://www.detroitnews.com…
That would not surprise me. Any real opponent of tyranny and any student of history would be. Almost all the anarchist libertarians I know here in AZ and Montana have been really put off. Even the established party has a mostly anti Trump stance. The Trump era has educated me quite a bit. I had a strong hint that the party of weak government really did not give a damn about that after 9/11, now watching how the GOP has been totally co-opted by a cult of personality has been a real wake up call. I am surprised that a lot of weak government types are showing up with guns to influence polling counts in favor of a personality cult. That has been a surprise. If the guys in Michigan are anarchist libertarians, that surprises me much less. I’ve heard such talk from them since the days of Black Helicopters and the UN invasion forces just waiting to invade back in the Clinton admin.
Exactly.
No they didn’t!
Geez, you dope. A self-loading firearm only shoots once per each trigger pull. They are not subject to any stricter regulation than any single shot breechloading firearm under Federal Law.
Machine-guns on the other hand are de-facto banned weapons. Only a small pool of legal machine-guns persists, which trade for prices ranging from thousands of dollars to tens of thousands of dollars, under strict Federal regulation.
Those protesters did not have machine-guns! Geez!
Sorry, I’ve shot those weapons before and they keep firing as long as you pull the trigger, or are limited to a burst of 3 rounds for one model of the AR-15 I shot. I find it very hard to believe those guys limited their weapons to one pull one shot, that’s a mode to select, but not the only mode.
Shot what weapons? Where? Under what circumstances?
I’ve fired legal machine-guns myself on occasion. Once at a Las Vegas rental range. So what?
Legal machine-guns are horribly expensive and highly regulated by Federal Law and by most States.
Conventional self-loading-rifles, such as the old Winchester Model 1905 Self-Loading-Rifle, are legally indistinguishable from the popular AR-15 pattern rifles which are the most popular selling rifles in America and have been for over twenty years. The same. Legally and mechanically.
Looks like if the weapon is from 1986 or before an automatic is legal , and can be purchased and sold without special license. I may be reaching here, but as long as the receiver is grandfathered, I understand the rest of the working of the gun are pretty much unregulated. We’ll see what the trial brings up. We’re way off topic, but I’ll bet lunch those guys were equipped with fully automatic weapons among other military grade weapons. Maybe even perfectly legally too. But my point still sticks. Both sides have extremists. The left is willing to destroy property for politics, and the right is ready to take lives for it. I hope not to see you on C-Span when Trump assembles his ‘Bonus’ army. And I hope I’m wrong that he’ll try it.
No no no no no
All legal machineguns require a special Federal license to purchase and possess. Some states have a total prohibition on any possession.
What the Hughes Amendment of 1986 did was freeze the size of the legal pool of machineguns available. Which over time had the effect in increasing the prices of the firearm to tens of thousands of dollars.
A legally transferable fully automatic U.S. M16 5.56mm rifle typically goes for a price of $25,000!!!
https://auctions.morphyauct…
Okay, thanks for that clarification. Let’s see what comes out of the trial. Knowing how easy it is to modify those weapons, I’m going with they were armed with automatics. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong. They still attempted a lame ass coupe, that is still a coupe, including the kidnapping of a Governor. I’m sure you consider them fine outstanding law abiding Americans to this day. I don’t.
No they are not easy to modify into machine-guns. That is another anti-gun lie promoted by the likes of Josh Sugarmann and Angry Joe Dementia.
In fact if a firearm is easy to convert, the ATF will prohibit it from being manufactured using the regulatory power they assert under Federal gun-control laws. The ATF did so before back in the early 1980’s, when they stopped the manufacture of KG-9 and M-10 handguns.
Trial should be around March for the state charges. Let’s see what the feds charge them with after Jan 21.
No, I don’t. Conspiracy to kidnap is a felony. I consider them criminals.
Kyle Rittenhouse is a completely separate situation in a different state.
You are entirely wrong. The last time it was legal for a U.S. civilian to buy an automatic weapon over the counter was in 1934. The only place you could ever have fired a full-auto weapon was at one of a very limited number of shooting ranges.
So, in addition to Kyle Rittenhouse’s actual circumstances, you seem to know little or nothing about guns either. What you see there are semi-automatic rifles acquired, quite legally, on the civilian firearms market. They fire one round per trigger pull – period. Full-auto or even three-round burst fire mode weapons are not available on the U.S. civilian market.
Stop making up carp to further your stupid ideology. He and his friends assembled to go and shoot people. And they did.
I think the difference between right and left is the valuation of property over people. The right valuing property over people and their desire to kill people in the defense of property. Looking at their response to the pandemic you can see that they don’t value the death of people. Likely their emotional reaction to 9/11 was based on the destruction of the property. Which puts their conduct of post 9/11 policy vs dealing with the pandemic into context.
I would accuse you of making up crap but all you’re doing is repeating crap made up by others. Rittenhouse assembled to defend property and to offer medical aid to anyone who needed it, including the “protestors.” If he and his friends had actually intended to shoot people, I can assure you the body count would have been a lot higher. In any event, he didn’t kill anyone in defense of property, he was defending his own life.
Another item of crap made up by others you are repeating is the whole “property over people” canard from the “In Defense of Looting” crowd. The rioters smashing and burning aren’t exactly pacifists and have proven repeatedly that they are entirely comfortable with visiting violence upon persons as well as property. I see no moral justification for valuing the life of a rioter, who made a deliberate choice to attempt to destroy something owned and/or built by another, over the often very large portion of the life of that other that it took to build what the rioter chooses to attempt to destroy.
It was not his property. Nor was he authorized by the people who owned that property to ‘defend’ it. He was an under trained ignorant overarmed thug who had no legal authority to take the law into his own hands.
No, it wasn’t his property. He was asked by someone to help defend it, though I’m not sure it was the actual property owner. He didn’t “take the law into his own hands” except in the sense that, under English Common Law, ordinary citizens have always been permitted to defend lives and property in the absence of any sworn law officers. At the time of the incidents in question, there wasn’t a cop to be seen within blocks.
Hey Eagleson, I authorize you to go to your local bank and give them a withdrawal note asking them to give you all the cash they have on hand. Bring a rifle. Tell them, it’s my money, and I’m authorizing you to take it. I also authorize you to shoot anyone who tries to stop you. Have fun with it. I want you to be happy. …. Dude, you are twisted. Please tell me, that was a temporary lapse or reason. You and Rittenhouse are EXACTLY why law enforcement needs to be left to trained professionals. Look at the gymnastics you have to go through to keep your ideas on some sort of footing.
You know, calling Rittenhouse wrong won’t turn you into Bill Clinton. He was just wrong, no matter if you’re left or right.
Not an accurate comparison of situations. In Kenosha, the only “withdrawals” being demanded were by the arsonists and looters. Rittenhouse was closer to being the teller behind the counter than a bank robber. He didn’t own what he was standing in front of any more than a teller owns what’s in the vault behind him. Doesn’t make either Rittenhouse or the teller wrong to resist forcible takings.
You are the one living in an insane paranoid fantasy universe which has no relationship to reality.
The evidence about Kyle is not some secret, it is all out there on unedited video, for everyone to see, and has been for weeks now! Yet you persist in your delusions.
The only people showing a proclivity for aggression isn’t the Right, it is the Left. The Left have been rioting, looting, committing acts of arson, beating people up, curb stomping people, and shooting and killing people. Over POLITICS! POLITICS!
That’s your chosen side. Ugh.
Sorry bubba you and your gun totin’ insurgents are part of the problem too. So when Trumpy Bear calls you to DC to hold the White House, are you going to go?
https://pbs.twimg.com/media…
exactly
fat boy is toast
Bad example. Mr. Rittenhouse was an individual resisting rioters who unwisely chose to attack him. The entire series of incidents is on video if you care to watch. It was an open-and-shut case of self-defense.
Saying he was defending himself is like saying a burglar is defending himself after having broken into someone’s house. By the time the video of him being chased and ‘defending’ himself, he had already shot someone and then made a call saying as such. He was a dumb ass kid who put himself into a situation he was not trained to deal with, and lacked authority to do what he did. When the people surrounded him, they had every right to do so as he had demonstrated he was a danger to those around him. Rittenhouse went there to be a part of the riot. He went there to shoot at other rioters and then became part of it himself out of his own stupidity, lack of training, lack of legal authority, and being incapable of proper use of a firearm. He and his gang of tugs were just as guilty of riot as the people around them.
You are entirely incorrect about the timeline and everything else. As for “went there to be part of the riot,” Rittenhouse worked in Kenosha. He was already there well before the riot started. He stayed to help.
Yeah, right. Why don’t you go back to your Q Anon and election cheating news that will make you feel all better.
So his job was a lifeguard at a YMCA. Connect showing up with a automatic rifle at a riot to that job. You know I’ve never been a lifeguard, but I’ve never seen one armed.
So you have no response to actual facts. I accept your surrender. You may keep your sidearm and your horse.
What are you talking about, they have him planning his arrival with the other vigilantes. What, in your opinion was his job? The police list it as a lifeguard at the YMCA. Tell us what his job was. Tell us who employed him to guard the property where he shot his first victim. And then show the evidence that the victim was committing a crime to justified being shot.
Nobody employed Rittenhouse to guard anything. He was a volunteer. He is also trained in first aid and was carrying a medical bag as well as a gun. The people he shot are all shown on video assaulting, or trying to assault, Mr. Rittenhouse. One of his assailants also had a gun and later stated he had intended to kill Mr. Rittenhouse. Your accusations are complete nonsense.
If I had a gun and watched him gun down two people, then, I’d try to shoot him out of protecting the public and myself. This is why you leave policing to professionals and why amateurs showing up at riots is such a problem.
The rioters who show up at riots are usually amateurs too – though given the number of out-of-towners who seem to travel around from riot to riot I suppose we could say that at least some of them could be more accurately described as being at least semi-pros.
The two people Rittenhouse “gunned down” were both trying to injure or kill him at the time and both had criminal records. So did the third cretin with the gun who was, unfortunately, merely wounded. I wish Rittenhouse had completed the hat trick.
I think one of the people he shot he shot while the person was running away. Again, why amateurs with guns at riots are such a problem. 17 year old kids who have aspirations to to be authority figures have no business owning guns without proper training. You soak those boys up with a draft and give them proper context on use of force. Video games, and cartoon character politicians are the wrong source of guidance for young boys like that.
Rittenhouse is one of those boys who needs to be tried as an adult and given an adult sentence once found guilty.
But I’m sure you’ve seen armed guards. Rittenhouse wasn’t on duty as a lifeguard on the streets of Kenosha. That’s his day job. At the time of the shootings, he was a volunteer guard of a different sort, trying to defend people and property from thugs and killers.
And so SpaceX is now our only hope for reaching the Moon…
IMO, Thomas, it always was. Stay safe, Paul.
thanks…I needed a chuckle…
They have started the assembly of the first Super Heavy booster BN1 at Boca Chica. So a complete Super Heavy & Starship stack might be available early next year for orbital test flights.
The #dearMoon circumlunar flyby with Maezawa & company is more or less on schedule.
Even more amusing is that they have at least 4 more new Starships coming online in the next few weeks. In addition to Starship SN8 sitting on a launch mount at Boca Chica.
nothing has happened at spaceX for me to revise my time table prediction
May we expect such a change when Starship gets to orbit next year?
if that happens yes
That has been true for some time.
I’m hoping that Biden won’t rock the boat and prefer to have NASA on autopilot so he doesn’t have to worry about it while he concentrates his efforts on bigger issues like controlling the Covid pandemic. To put NASA on autopilot, all Biden needs to do is nominate someone already at NASA such as Thomas Zurbuchen or Kathy Lueders.
Actually an ‘autopilot’ policy will crash head-on into the February deadline for HLS funding.
So doing nothing is itself a choice. A choice that for all practical purposes will kill Project Artemis.
But yeah, doing nothing is exactly what I expect to see from Biden for the first year in office. Only later will Biden formalize the de-facto NASA policy, which would be adaption of most of the key points of House Resolution 5666.
Which means Gateway will still launch, Artemis missions one and two will still launch. But Artemis-3, will only rendezvous with Gateway, maybe as late as 2026.
The new emphasis will be on the Mars 2033 orbital mission. HLS may even be entirely cancelled in favor of DST; because too much cost of SLS, and too much cost of DST which would overlap with cost of HLS.
I am disappointed, I hope Artemis can continue on with strong partnerships in the commercial sector.
When it comes to the love of matters to do with Space, obviously, “there’s little room in Tupolev’s heart for anyone but Tupolev”. 🙂
I hope the next administrator will be Kathy Lueders. She would be perfect for the role.
Congress will support the Artemis Program, SLS, Orion and Gateway. If SpaceX is ready with its lunar lander by 2023, then we would have landed in 2024, if not maybe 2026/2028. Until then there will be major missions on the Gateway.
Glad to see him go. Hopefully we will go back to the original Moon, Mars schedule. Should be able to get funds from Congress if that happens. I would like Gerst. He may be too political though. When Trump came in I read a report that he said we ought to try anything once. He may not wish to mess with it. But taking the place of the guy that fired him, he may like that.
We would be glad to see you go. Bridenstine one of the best administrators. I guess you voted for Biden and do nit understand the ins and outs if successful administrators.
This is just iPhone if the many reasons why Trump needed to be re-elected. I thought Bridenstine was a great choice from the get go, we needed him to really get Artemis going. With him gone I would nit be surprised if Biden cuts the program with Democrat support. Remember under Obama they wasted nasa money in Muslim outreach.
Bridenstine will be missed fir his enthusiasm and knowledge if aviation and Washington. I guess he just decided that working for Biden a Democrat was not what he wanted to do.
an utterly ridiculous post
Just the iPhone part. Autocorrect strikes again it looks like.
I am glad to see him go. all he is/was is a political hack who is going back to being a political hack.
He did not do a darn thing at NASA…he did not get SLS under control nor set up a realistic agenda for the President to follow. reality has had no place in the trump administration and it did not find one at NASA…
Ah, but don’t forget, Bob, his most notable act of throwing Gerst and Hill under the bus to garnish political support from Shelby & Co. for the accelerated Artemis program and Pence’s likely run for the Oval Office in 2024. And, what was to be his likely reward? How about a handshake deal of being Pence’s running mate? Well, haven’t the wheels fallen off that little wagon (still possible though – yuk). 🙂 Stay safe, Paul.
he and Pence would be a good fit…but to be honest I have no idea where the GOP will be four years from now. I suspect that Pence (if he doesnt have the virus) is already making plans)
I think that there are a lot of people who need to be thrown from the bus, but sadly Boeing 🙂 for me is one of them
nice hunt for red october quote
https://thespacereview.com/…
Bridenstine didn’t say he’s leaving, he said he wouldn’t work for Joe Biden. Given that Mr. Biden is not yet President, and may well never be, that is not equivalent to Mr. Bridenstine saying he’s leaving.
No problem. In 4 year Trump may be candidate again…