Trump picks Janet Petro of Kennedy to be acting NASA administrator, not Jim Free of headquarters
In a surprise move, the Trump administration announced yesterday that the expected person to take over as acting administrator of NASA until Jared Isaacman is approved by the Senate would not be Jim Free. the present associate administrator at NASA headquarters, but Janet Petro, who is presently director of the Kennedy Space Center.
NASA had so much assumed Free had the job that it had already listed him as acting administrator today on the NASA webpage.
There has of course been speculation as to why Trump made this unexpected choice. My guess is that Trump wants to reduce significantly the size of NASA headquarters, and thus wants someone from outside to run it for the present. Petro has been at Kennedy since 2007. Before that she was in the private sector.
Free has been a working out of DC for several years, and thus has stronger ties to the workforce there.
The decision also makes it clear to the NASA bureaucracy who is in charge. Decisions will no longer be made by that bureaucracy without strong input from Trump.
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In a surprise move, the Trump administration announced yesterday that the expected person to take over as acting administrator of NASA until Jared Isaacman is approved by the Senate would not be Jim Free. the present associate administrator at NASA headquarters, but Janet Petro, who is presently director of the Kennedy Space Center.
NASA had so much assumed Free had the job that it had already listed him as acting administrator today on the NASA webpage.
There has of course been speculation as to why Trump made this unexpected choice. My guess is that Trump wants to reduce significantly the size of NASA headquarters, and thus wants someone from outside to run it for the present. Petro has been at Kennedy since 2007. Before that she was in the private sector.
Free has been a working out of DC for several years, and thus has stronger ties to the workforce there.
The decision also makes it clear to the NASA bureaucracy who is in charge. Decisions will no longer be made by that bureaucracy without strong input from Trump.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the 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. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
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.
Jim Free just oozes arrogance and disdain. This fine.
LET THE RE FOUNDING OF AMERICA COMMENCE!
“President Donald J. Trump is the closest thing to a modern-day founder of America in most all respects as any man or woman has ever come. It truly is a new day, let the re founding and the reconnection with the intent of the original Founders of America commence!”
https://www.sigma3ioc.com/post/let-the-re-founding-of-america-commence
Excellent news. And an unmistakable shot across the bow to the NASA ancien regime, of which Free was very much the top dog, reminding them that they no longer have free reign – and might even be well-advised to start packing their own bags against imminent departure. Free was Nelson’s nod to the old-timers and legacy contractors after he demoted Kathy Lueders. If SLS and Orion are canceled early in Trump’s second term, I think Free gets cashiered at the same time – along with a lot of others NASA will find itself well able to do without going forward. It almost goes without saying – but I’ll say it anyway – that this choice of Petro was made based on advice from Elon Musk. He has worked closely with NASA launch range and other personnel for years and knows who both the true gold and the fool’s gold nuggets are.
It would be a dream come true for Artemis to be canceled. However, that is congress’s call. They are unlikely to do so.
Dick Eagleson, I for one am glad you “said it anyway!”
Dick Eagleson: The choice of Petro, from Florida, signals that Trump has accepted at least one recommendation of his space transition team, to shrink NASA headquarters and move it to Florida.
In other words, Trump is going to do DeSantis a favor and send it to him. It also means that much of headquarters clout will be neutered in coming discussions about Artemis. Thus, this is also more evidence that SLS and Orion are on very thin ice.
Trump ain’t fooling around this time. His experience in his first term has taught him who to trust and who not to. And in less than 24 hours he has been quickly kicking out people who can’t be trusted, No wimpy letting bad actors stick around. The slightest hint they aren’t working for him and out they go.
I think these reasons could indeed be at work, but there’s other reasons that Trump’s team would have been reluctant to give Jim Free the reins of the agency, even in an acting role, for even a short period of time. He’s clearly an “Old Space” guy, the special choice of Bill Nelson to boot out Kathy Leuders from the Artemis programs.
As Eric Berger pointed out last night, Jim Free is not only the man who has presided over Artemis’s year-to-year schedule slide since 2021, but he’s also been effusive in insisting that the program is doing fine. And, truth to tell, one senses a certain skepticism about SpaceX in his public comments about the company’s role with NASA every time the subject comes up. One greatly doubts that he would have chosen SpaceX for the HLS contract had he been in position at the time rather than Lueders.