The man who has been running NASA’s manned Artemis program resigns
Late yesterday NASA officially announced that Jim Free, who has been running NASA’s manned Artemis program for the past year, has decided to resign.
Only a month or so ago the people at NASA had assumed that Free would take over as the agency’s acting administrator during the transition from Bill Nelson, appointed by Biden, and Jared Isaacman, appointed by Trump. Instead, Trump’s transition team gave this job to Janet Petro, who had been head of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Free has been seen as a headquarters guy who has for years favored the old big space companies like Boeing and who also has favored SLS and Orion and the old way of doing things, whereby NASA designs, builds, and controls everything instead of simply buying what it needs from the private sector.
There have also been reports that “three key officials” at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama have also submitted their retirement papers. This would suggest that the earlier proposals by Trump’s NASA transition team to shrink or eliminate many of NASA’s numerous centers scattered across the country are being seriously discussed, and possibly being implemented.
Many news sources have concluded that the decision by the Trump administration to delay its major layoffs at NASA was because the Trump administration was reconsidering these major changes. I disagree. I think it is holding off because the new administrator has not yet been confirmed by the Senate, and it decided he should have a say in these reductions and changes. The retirement and resignation of these old school NASA management types further tells us that major changes are coming.
Overall, my guess is that a major reorganization of NASA — including the elimination of many of its centers — could reduce its overhead by $5 to $10 billion per year. Part of those savings could be used to reduce the deficit, but some could also be used to increase the amount of money available for all of NASA’s goals. I made this point fourteen years ago, and nothing has changed since then except that NASA has wasted billions over that time accomplishing nothing with SLS and Orion.
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Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
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Late yesterday NASA officially announced that Jim Free, who has been running NASA’s manned Artemis program for the past year, has decided to resign.
Only a month or so ago the people at NASA had assumed that Free would take over as the agency’s acting administrator during the transition from Bill Nelson, appointed by Biden, and Jared Isaacman, appointed by Trump. Instead, Trump’s transition team gave this job to Janet Petro, who had been head of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Free has been seen as a headquarters guy who has for years favored the old big space companies like Boeing and who also has favored SLS and Orion and the old way of doing things, whereby NASA designs, builds, and controls everything instead of simply buying what it needs from the private sector.
There have also been reports that “three key officials” at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama have also submitted their retirement papers. This would suggest that the earlier proposals by Trump’s NASA transition team to shrink or eliminate many of NASA’s numerous centers scattered across the country are being seriously discussed, and possibly being implemented.
Many news sources have concluded that the decision by the Trump administration to delay its major layoffs at NASA was because the Trump administration was reconsidering these major changes. I disagree. I think it is holding off because the new administrator has not yet been confirmed by the Senate, and it decided he should have a say in these reductions and changes. The retirement and resignation of these old school NASA management types further tells us that major changes are coming.
Overall, my guess is that a major reorganization of NASA — including the elimination of many of its centers — could reduce its overhead by $5 to $10 billion per year. Part of those savings could be used to reduce the deficit, but some could also be used to increase the amount of money available for all of NASA’s goals. I made this point fourteen years ago, and nothing has changed since then except that NASA has wasted billions over that time accomplishing nothing with SLS and Orion.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either. IMPORTANT! If you donate enough to get a book, please email me separately to tell me which book you want and the address to mail it to.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Well, at least one thing has changed: NASA has become noticeably less transparent about almost everything in its human spaceflight program than it was back in 2011. It’s almost a ritual now to hear the complaints from space journalists at the few press conferences NASA bothers to hold any longer. Keith Cowing has become a skipping record on this, but in this case, he isn’t wrong.
I hope that this is something else Jared Isaacman will change when he gets on the job.
But as for SLS and Orion, I think we have to say that they have already accomplished their primary intended goal, Bob!
“But as for SLS and Orion, I think we have to say that they have already accomplished their primary intended goal, Bob!”
Yep, and a big hunk of that goal was probably kickbacks to politicians. Let’s have a long look at Boeing’s, Lockheed’s, and Bechtel’s books, and the NGOs they funded!
Richard M: Actually, little has changed. Even before 2011 I had found NASA to be very difficult to work with when it came to budgets and its manned program. It was always impossible to get any concrete budget information from anyone at the agency.
By the time I was writing Capitalism in Space in 2016-2017, I found it pointless to ask NASA anything about budgets. Instead, I decided to use Congress’s actual appropriation numbers, which were more accurate anyway than anything that NASA fed me.
The fact remains that SLS has flown in a successful fashion and never put aviation at hazard last I checked.
The closest we had as a real Space Force was ABMA –and that was killed, along with Apollo.
With the Saturns gone–segmented solids was what folks had to work with.
Time after time my state gets kicked in the teeth…with an LV that didn’t rain debris over the Caribbean being the one on the chopping block.
Libertarian foolishness that ranks down there with fiscal hawks all but poisoning Flint water in the name of cost cutting.
I will remember this slap in face.
Mr. Wright, could you please explain your comment “I will remember this slap in the face.” The article does not name you specifically and you were not attacked in the comments.
Sir, I am not being snarky here. Your comments are at best, unclear. Please elaborate. Also, what State are you referring to?
Alabama’s role in space has always been attacked.
Lefties like Keith Cowing at NASA WATCH slimed us for years. Libertarians on the right who don’t respect tribal knowledge and infrastructure have also tried to hurt MSFC.
The ABMA talked about reusable troop rockets when Phil Bono was alive.
I consider all this bipartisan stupidity. One guy over at Space News suggested only Alabamans pay for SLS.
Fine.
I just contacted Senator Tuberville’s office and suggested only Texas tax dollars go to Starship.
I doubt any taxpayer dollars are going to Starship. SLS is simply too expensive and has a very low flight rate. Also expendable. Paleo rocketry. Kill it now.
The “putting aviation at risk” is about the silliest thing I’ve heard here.
Juan Browne may disagree.
That’s fine.
Most of us here are taxpaying American citizens with free speech rights–each of us has a right to ask those who represent us to do the will of the voter.
I know how to do that too.
Jeff
The voters did speak.
And the admin is doing exactly what they said they would do.
Artemis (as a program) must evolve or die. SLS was never a sustainable system at that price.
Listening to various space related news and podcasts, and reading space-news journalists, very few expect SLS to survive, and it has few defenders. Everyone knows it has to go. The fact that it had one successful, unmanned, flight really does not matter. The US government paid a fortune for an expensive ricket show and a cruise around the moon for an empty tin can.
In the Apollo-era, money was no object.
But there were no options either.
Today, we have options.
Jeff Wright,
Alabama has a lot more roles in space than just MSFC. There’s ULA, Blue Origin and a lot of smaller pilotfish outfits in Huntsville. Nobody’s picking on Alabama, they’re picking on MSFC and SLS – for entirely good reasons.
“Tribal knowledge” is, in MSFC’s case, just an inability to do things any other way than how granddaddy did them back in the 60s and 70s. To paraphrase Mr. Spock, there’s not much point in trying to build a usable large launch vehicle using stone knives and bearskins.
On the matter of infrastructure, MSFC hasn’t been what you’d call terribly respectful of its own. That giant test stand that Blue Origin took over and spent a lot of time and money restoring to usefulness had been allowed by MSFC management to become a rusty perch for local wildfowl.
Starship has flown in successful fashion too – and more than once. The recent failure was unfortunate but put no aviation assets at risk.
You seem a tad fixated on “libertarians.” Trust me, one does not have to be a libertarian to find SLS a complete boondoggle.
And, just as a matter of record, you will search in vain for any libertarian involvement in the poisoning of Flint, MI’s water supply. That was just garden-variety Democrat stupidity of the same general sort that recently had half of Los Angeles on fire and has made many major American cities into dystopian hellholes.
SLS was a failure the minute it was proposed.
First off it was supposed to use Shuttle parts. Engines, fuel tanks and solid fuel boosters to save time and ,money.
But as soon as they realized none of those suppliers were still in operation and in some cases the plans were lost it should have been shut down.
It should have been the shuttle system without the shuttle air-frame.
The engines needed to be totally built new. The boosters needed to be built from new. The fuel tanks were totally redesigned and new manufacturing facilities built to male them. The capsule was obviously designed and built from new. Even then they screwed that up and its frame needed re-enforced.
Hundreds of minor construction and design errors on top of that.
Was this the capsule they could not change the batteries in after construction?