9 comments

• Richard M

  July 10, 2025 at 4:07 am

  I’m tempted to think that the Duffy move is a “negative” decision — it is not what Trump thinks Duffy can particularly do for NASA but rather that (for reasons not yet clear to us) he no longer trusts Janet Petro to handle the interim administrator job. So he wants one of “his” people in place, stat.

  It probably also signals that Trump anticipates it being a while before a permanent administrator is nominated and confirmed. Which might not be a surprise given how confirmation hearings in the Senate have slowed to a crawl this summer. (Not that Trump has exactly set speed records with a new nomination.)
• Richard M

  July 10, 2025 at 4:19 am

  OK…after reading Eric Berger’s article, I may have been partially off base. Maybe it was not about Petro after all — beyond the general reality that she was not a “Trump person,” as opposed to anything she actually did (or did not do):

  Sources indicated that although Petro did not have a particularly high standing within the Trump Administration, she did nothing to be removed from her position. Rather, it seems that Trump wanted someone he liked and trusted running NASA. This is probably a benefit for the agency, as it will give NASA a direct line to the president. For example, Duffy can text Trump if NASA needs something, or is being treated unfairly during the budgeting process.

  Petro did not have that kind of political sway, and this is a White House in which access to the President matters a great deal. The agency was in great peril as there was no one in headquarters who could push back on harmful things being done to NASA, or get things done. Duffy will have that kind of pull. But he will also be incredibly busy already, with the Department of Transportation.

  There are also some reasons to be concerned about NASA under Duffy. Because he does not come from a space background, but rather a political one, Duffy likely views his mission at NASA as carrying out the vision of the space agency established by the President’s Budget Request, which slashes funding for science and makes significant changes to NASA’s deep space exploration plans. […] The Senate is likely to restore many of the cuts proposed by the White House Office of Management and Budget, which is led by Russ Vought. In terms of alignment, Duffy is likely to side with Vought and push for the President’s budget to be implemented at the start of the fiscal year on October 1.

  https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/07/nasa-has-a-new-interim-administrator-the-secretary-of-transportation/

  Jared Isaacman has come out in support of the move, by the way, for what it is worth.

  (As usual, avoid the Ars comment section at all costs unless you are a sadomasochist.)
• Richard M

  July 10, 2025 at 4:25 am

  P.S. It is a relief to see Axiom making what appears to be some tangible progress on the EVA suits.

  It won’t do much good for Starship to be ready to do a landing if the astronauts have no way of walking out of the airlocks. That would be just as true for any commercial mission SpaceX might be approached to execute, too!
• Milt

  July 10, 2025 at 7:07 am

  It’s the Elephant in the Room thing, again. But — as I am all too aware — does it even serve any point to talk about it?

  The problem, simply put, is what does the growing rift between Elon Musk and President Trump portend for America’s future in space?
  Since last November, it appeared that there was an emerging consensus that Robert’s view of the way forward (cf, Capitalism in Space) had firmly taken hold at the White House, and we were looking, finally, at a true, private sector-sourced Second Space Age.

  Now, with the cashiering of Mr. Isaacman and the retention of funding for the SLS / Artemis boondoggle, it would appear that such a hopeful vision may have been premature, and we are back to short sighted, pork barrel politics as usual in Washington. Worse, there is no reason not to believe that politics — not to mention raw emotion — is now driving Mr. Trump’s decision making process with respect to what this nation does in space, and this cannot have a happy ending. Is he, in short, more interested in “punishing” Elon Musk or overseeing a rational and sustainable expansion into the Solar System?

  In a similar fashion, it is hard to ignore what seems to be happening with respect to Mr. Musk’s increasingly erratic behavior. As James Howard Kunstler observes https://www.kunstler.com/p/cage-match :

  “Is Elon losing it, a little bit? His grip, that is. Mr. Trump thinks so. He declared over the weekend that Elon has “gone off the rails” . . . has become “a train wreck.” Well, what you can see in this very public, very regrettable cage-match between two giant public personalities is that Elon has lost his cool and the president has not.”

  But what does all of this “mean” with respect to what direction America pursues with respect to going into space? Looking forward a bit, if “Capitalism in Space” becomes inseparably bound up with the platform of Mr. Musk’s new American political party, then what will be Mr. Trump’s response? A Big Beautiful Space Program based on SLS / Artemis? Is anyone feeling “good” about any of this right now?

  What does everyone else think?
• wayne

  July 10, 2025 at 7:48 am

  “Mission Mules emergency response team arrives in Texas to support search & recovery”
  July 7, 2025
  https://www.youtube.com/shorts/N9plSB_ymuM

  “Unlike traditional emergency vehicles, our teams utilize surefooted Mules to reach victims often left behind in the immediate aftermath of a crisis. This crucial first response capability allows us to deliver essential supplies and medical assistance where other relief efforts are simply unable to reach.”
• Concerned

  July 10, 2025 at 8:30 am

  Richard M.–James Webb, JFK’s administrator during the formative Apollo years was also not an aerospace guy.
  NASA needs to be scaled way back to pure research before it can become cutting edge once again. Commercial space is now where the airlines were 100 years ago–it needs to be supported by an NACA-like agency, but it will be those *free market* commercial companies that take us sustainably, affordably, and profitably into LEO and beyond.
  NASA as it stands now is just a giant, old, bloated weight keeping us tethered to the ground with more downward force than gravity.
  The porker senators in TX, AL, CA, CO obviously don’t share that vision.
• Jeff Wright

  July 10, 2025 at 11:32 am

  He and Jared look a bit like each other–so maybe Trump thinks he can make a switch :)
• Max

  July 10, 2025 at 1:21 pm

  There is so much going on in the world today but our news media doesn’t cover very much of it. Is journalism dead? I see it twitching once in a while but then it stops and I’m disappointed. The news has turned into sensationalism. Soundbites. Influencers. Social media echo chamber.

  As for the best friend Break up between Trump and Elon, “who benefits?” Why did this happen? Has this been “staged” for our benefit by two former Democrats? A distraction for headlines?
  It is said; when things aren’t going well at home, the president does a world tour and takes his show on the road.
  (like Obama‘s apology tour where he was handing out USAID)
  Was this tantrum of giants for our benefit to help save Tesla? He lost a lot of money and the hemorrhaging need to stop. Did the break up with the pretend domestic squabble work? Was the announcement of a third-party (a Ross Perot tactic to split the conservative vote to get Bill Clinton elected) A conspiracy to get Old/new Democrats fighting each other so they can’t be unified?
  The Democrats are fracturing and in disarray, with no leader ship… Is this an attempt to yank back the party of crazies into sane reality? To save the “pink hair opposition” so no one notices the mistakes your own party is making? Gaslighting on a new level?

  We will know in time if their advisers who are helping them do damage control, saves this upset in the MAGA Movement without becoming a logjam to this administration.
  Without Elon side-by-side with the Trump, the Democrats no longer have a unifying position to focus their angst upon. They are saying, do we support Elon now that he hates Trump like us?
  Now they’re back to focusing on Trump only, which is getting tiresome… it’s hard to stand against something when the administration pulls the rug from under your feet and you must climb back up again.
  Is this really brilliantly executed theater to keep the enemies off balance? At the same time as diverting attention from your own failures of holding anyone responsible for the crimes of the century?

  “Lock her up” was the rallying cry for his first election… Failure to do so destroyed his first term in office because of his “verbal pardon” allowed her to do anything she wished without repercussions… The Russia dossier.
  Now history is repeating itself. With a twist.
  Billionaires love to play mind games… Why? Because they can! They can afford to do so.
• Mike Borgelt

  July 10, 2025 at 4:55 pm

  I’m with you, Max.