NASA’s Chief Wants Former Astronaut Janet Kavandi to Help Run Things. Trump Is Looking at the Senate’s Admin Guy

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, left, testifies before Congress.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, left, testifies before Congress. Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

How much space expertise does NASA need in its top office to launch humans safely into space?

NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine is a former lawmaker, and he says he wants a former astronaut, Dr. Janet Kavandi, as his deputy. But Donald Trump, who makes the final decision, is leaning toward a man with no experience in space technology.

Five sources with knowledge of the deliberations tell Quartz that the White House is seriously considering James Morhard, a veteran senate aide. Their names have been withheld because they are not authorized to discuss the decision, but they worry that the wrong person in that job could create new problems for NASA. The agency is preparing to authorize private spacecraft built by Boeing and SpaceX to carry astronauts to the International Space Station in 2019—the first launch of astronauts from U.S. soil since 2011.

“The President selects the highest caliber of individuals from an array of backgrounds and experiences to fill positions in his Administration,” White House spokesperson Lindsay Walters said in a statement responding to questions about the deputy NASA administrator role.

What’s the right resume?

During testy senate confirmation hearings, Bridenstine reminded senators charged with approving him that previous administrators, including iconic leader James Webb, came from non-technical backgrounds. But the former lawmaker and military pilot promised that he would seek an experienced technologist for his leadership team if confirmed.

Presidents often balance NASA leadership between those who navigate political battles, and less partisan figures with space exploration experience. During the Obama administration, former astronaut Charles Bolden led the agency, while Lori Garver, a space expert who been a senior advisor at NASA during the Clinton administration, was his deputy. Before that, NASA administrator Michael Griffin, an aerospace engineering expert, was back-stopped by Shana Dale, an attorney who had worked in the Bush White House and Congress.

Bridenstine is seeking similar balance for his own political background: In June, he said Kavandi would make an excellent deputy administrator.“That’s the kind of person at this juncture, given how important everything is right now, that we need as our deputy, and I’m advocating for her,” Bridenstine said.

“Janet Kavandi is a lifelong space professional with high-level management experience and a strong technical background, and [Bridenstine] continues to believes she would be an excellent choice as NASA’s Deputy Administrator,” NASA press secretary Megan Powers told Quartz. “That being said, we are committed to fulfilling the President’s vision of sending humans back to the moon in a sustainable way and are looking forward to having a Deputy Administrator in place to assist with meeting that objective.”

The astronaut and the appropriator

Kavandi, 58, joined NASA’s astronaut corps in 1994. She had previously been an engineer at Boeing, and earned a P.h.D in analytical chemistry from the University of Washington in Seattle. She spent 33 days in space as an astronaut on three different space shuttle missions, then became the lead astronaut supervising work on the International Space Station and the deputy head of the astronaut office. In 2016, she became the director of NASA’s Glenn Research Center, which includes a huge vacuum chamber where SpaceX’s crew vehicle, the Dragon space capsule, is currently undergoing tests.

“While the President has not yet nominated a deputy administrator for the Agency, Dr. Kavandi is honored that the NASA Administrator expressed his confidence in her,” a spokesperson for Kavandi told Quartz.

Kavandi has attracted bipartisan kudos, with Florida Republican senator Marco Rubio praising Bridenstine’s choice. Ohio’s Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown told Quartz that “there’s no question Janet Kavandi is a highly qualified professional who knows the value of NASA Glenn and the importance of aerospace to the state of Ohio. She’d have my support.”

In his current job, Morhard, 61, is responsible for technology and administration in the offices of 100 senators and 88 committees and subcommittees. Starting off as an accountant at the Pentagon, he began his career as a legislative staffer in 1983, earning an MBA and a law degree along the way.

He rose to become the powerful chief of staff of the Appropriations Committee under the late senator Ted Stevens, and forged close ties with Republican senators. Morhard was a passenger, along with former NASA administrator Sean O’Keefe, in a 2010 plane crash that killed Stevens and four others. He did not return a message left at his office.

Morhard received his current job from Senate leader Mitch McConnell, but when asked about Morhard’s future, McConnell’s spokesperson told Quartz that “we don’t comment on administration nominations that haven’t been made.”

One NASA official who spoke about the nomination with Quartz worried that Morhard lacks sufficient engineering experience to justify his nomination alongside Bridenstine, particularly on technical questions where NASA headquarters will need to play referee between competing teams of engineers.

Tough decisions loom

Boeing and SpaceX are the first companies to build human-rated spacecraft as a fixed-price commercial service for NASA, rather than executing NASA designs under a cost-plus contract. As a lawmaker, Bridenstine was a major proponent of these partnerships, citing SpaceX and Orbital ATK’s successful work carrying cargo to the International Space Station.

But flying humans into space is a whole new level of danger. NASA’s engineers have pushed both companies to meet a safety threshold more than twice as high as that of the Space Shuttle. That metric, known as loss of crew, is expressed as a probability of 1 in 270; the Space Shuttle at its best had a 1 in 90 chance of loss of crew.

Despite their efforts, neither Boeing nor SpaceX appears likely to meet the standard, though they will both field vehicles considered safer than the shuttle. The biggest problem for both companies is the constant danger of micrometeoroids in orbit, though each is working to resolve specific concerns NASA engineers have with their vehicle designs.

NASA is preparing to okay flights below the targeted standard because it simply may be impossible to reach; as Kathy Leuders, the commercial crew program manager, told me last year, “you have goals, and then you have engineering reality.” NASA is doing other work to help mitigate these risks, like installing high-definition cameras on the ISS to inspect spacecraft for any problems on-orbit. Bill Gerstenmaier, the NASA executive in charge of human exploration and operations, has written eloquently about the need for NASA to acknowledge that risk is central to space exploration.

The final decision to put astronauts on these rockets will come to Bridenstine’s desk. In the past, the disconnect between headquarters decision-makers and engineers on the ground was linked to disasters like the lost Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003. So the rest of NASA is watching closely to see who Bridenstine’s deputy will be.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.