The Trump Administration Finally Nominated The NASA Administrator: Who Is Jim Bridenstine?

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has advanced knowledge of our solar system (and beyond), home planet, and technology for decades. As a former NASA scientist and someone that routinely advises the agency, I have always been stunned at the broader public's limited knowledge about the scale of NASA's mission. Many associate it only with space shuttles and astronauts but often overlook the cool work, for example, by NASA on Mars, within the Earth's various systems, in aviation technology, and for education. Many things that benefit our daily lives come directly from NASA. This week President Trump announced that U.S. Representative Jim Bridenstine (R-OK) is his nominee as NASA's 13th Administrator.

Congressional website

Congressmane Jim Bridenstine

NASA was created in 1958 and is tasked with science and technology as it relates to space, aeronautics, earth, and more. A sample of language in the The 1958 Space Act that created NASA includes:

The aeronautical and space activities of the United States shall be conducted so as to contribute materially to one or more of the following objectives: The expansion of human knowledge of phenomena in the atmosphere and space … The establishment of long-range studies of the potential benefits to be gained from, the opportunities for, and the problems involved in the utilization of aeronautical and space activities for peaceful and scientific purposes… .The preservation of the role of the United States as a leader in aeronautical and space science and technology and in the application thereof to the conduct of peaceful activities within and outside the atmosphere… The making available to agencies directly concerned with national defenses of discoveries that have military value or significance, and the furnishing by such agencies, to the civilian agency established to direct and control nonmilitary aeronautical and space activities, of information as to discoveries which have value or significance to that agency…

NASA is one of several independent agencies, which means it is not a part of a federal executive department and the Executive Office of the President.

Congressman Bridenstine was elected in 2012 to serve Oklahoma's 1st Congressional district. Bridenstine's website also points out:

Bridenstine began his Naval aviation career flying the E-2C Hawkeye off the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier.  It was there that he flew combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan and gathered most of his 1,900 flight hours and 333 carrier-arrested landings.  While on active duty, he transitioned to the F-18 Hornet and flew at the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center, the parent command to TOPGUN.  After leaving active duty, Bridenstine returned to Tulsa to be the Executive Director of the Tulsa Air and Space Museum & Planetarium.

He triple majored in business administration, economics, and psychology at Rice University and has an MBA from Cornell University. After 9 years on active duty in the Navy, Congressman Bridenstine spent time in the private sector in various enterprises including aerospace, defense contracting, ranching, and real estate. He has served on both the Science, Space and Technology Committee and the House Armed Services Committee, respectively. These credentials are quite appropriate for someone leading today's version of NASA and not different from some previous NASA Administrators.

NASA stickers are handed out ahead of a solar eclipse viewing event on the campus of Southern Illinois University (SIU) in Carbondale, Illinois, U.S., on Monday, Aug. 21, 2017. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

Bridenstine has been very clear about his goals for the U.S. space program. He recently wrote about his views on the need to return to the moon to tap into potential water resources. Bridenstine has expressed support for ongoing NASA projects like the Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft but will also be viewed favorably by the rapidly emerging commercial space industry, according to Mark Whittington.

NASA has a strong portfolio of Earth Science research. The Earth's system is a complex web of weather, climate, oceans, vegetation, air quality, ice, and fire. NASA's vantage point of space and its advanced technologies provide a unique service to the nation to complement the more operational mission of others. As the nation continues to watch fellow citizens recover from Hurricane Harvey, NASA's envelope-pushing research and development and partnerships with other agencies are more vital than ever. Harvey's infancy can be traced to a cloud seedling in Africa. Along its journey, the storm interacted with open ocean, land, dust, and so forth. NASA technology was at the forefront and behind the scenes in monitoring Harvey. For example, intensity forecasts still lag track forecasts. Insight on sea surface temperatures and the development of towering rainstorms in the eyewall of hurricanes is key to improving intensity forecasts and for integration into operational models. Advanced technology developed by NASA are helping with this challenge. TheGlobal Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission provided critical and unique "under the hood" views of Harvey. I served for many years as Deputy Project Scientist for this mission while at NASA.

NASA PMM

Convective rainstorms in Harvey as seen by microwave instruments on GPM

Bridenstine has been a leader in supporting weather research. H.R. 353, the Lucas-Bridenstine Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act, was signed into law this year. As a former President of the American Meteorological Society consulted through the years on the potential efficacy of this bill, I know that Congressman Bridenstine was one of the driving forces behindthis bill that will hopefully save lives and property.

Bridenstine has been criticized for past statements related to federal spending on climate research. While I suspect this will be rightly fleshed out more in confirmation, my sense is that the Congressman is pragmatic. The realities of serving a state constituency are very different than leading an agency that is depended upon as a world leader in enabling Earth observations and modeling capabilities.  I also find it cool that the Congressman can talk phased-array radar with the best of them. I had the opportunity to talk with him on the phone in the past about some of these topics.

There is bipartisan criticism of the selection of a politician to lead the historic and vital space agency. Senators Rubio and Nelson have been particularly vocal in expressing concern about a politician at arguably the highest-profile science agency. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the Senate confirmation. I am going to leave all of the political stuff to the politicians, but I will end by noting that NASA is a science agency that I deeply care about. I spent 12 years of my career there, and I continue to advise the agency. My door (or phone line) is always open to Mr. Bridenstine for advice on why our work is so important to the nation and the world.

We finally have the name of the person that the Administration is nominating to lead one of the nation's most storied and successful federal agencies. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has advanced knowledge of our solar system (and beyond), home planet, and technology for decades. As a former NASA scientist and someone that routinely advises the agency, I have always been stunned at the broader public's limited knowledge about the scale of NASA's mission. Many associate it only with space shuttles and astronauts but often overlook the cool work, for example, by NASA on Mars, within the Earth's various systems, in aviation technology, and for education. Many things that benefit our daily lives come directly from NASA. This week President Trump announced that U.S. Representative Jim Bridenstine (R-OK) is his nominee as NASA's 13th Administrator.

Congressional website

Congressmane Jim Bridenstine

NASA was created in 1958 and is tasked with science and technology as it relates to space, aeronautics, earth, and more. A sample of language in the The 1958 Space Act that created NASA includes:

The aeronautical and space activities of the United States shall be conducted so as to contribute materially to one or more of the following objectives: The expansion of human knowledge of phenomena in the atmosphere and space … The establishment of long-range studies of the potential benefits to be gained from, the opportunities for, and the problems involved in the utilization of aeronautical and space activities for peaceful and scientific purposes… .The preservation of the role of the United States as a leader in aeronautical and space science and technology and in the application thereof to the conduct of peaceful activities within and outside the atmosphere… The making available to agencies directly concerned with national defenses of discoveries that have military value or significance, and the furnishing by such agencies, to the civilian agency established to direct and control nonmilitary aeronautical and space activities, of information as to discoveries which have value or significance to that agency…

NASA is one of several independent agencies, which means it is not a part of a federal executive department and the Executive Office of the President.

Congressman Bridenstine was elected in 2012 to serve Oklahoma's 1st Congressional district. Bridenstine's website also points out:

Bridenstine began his Naval aviation career flying the E-2C Hawkeye off the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier. It was there that he flew combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan and gathered most of his 1,900 flight hours and 333 carrier-arrested landings. While on active duty, he transitioned to the F-18 Hornet and flew at the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center, the parent command to TOPGUN. After leaving active duty, Bridenstine returned to Tulsa to be the Executive Director of the Tulsa Air and Space Museum & Planetarium.

He triple majored in business administration, economics, and psychology at Rice University and has an MBA from Cornell University. After 9 years on active duty in the Navy, Congressman Bridenstine spent time in the private sector in various enterprises including aerospace, defense contracting, ranching, and real estate. He has served on both the Science, Space and Technology Committee and the House Armed Services Committee, respectively. These credentials are quite appropriate for someone leading today's version of NASA and not different from some previous NASA Administrators.

NASA stickers are handed out ahead of a solar eclipse viewing event on the campus of Southern Illinois University (SIU) in Carbondale, Illinois, U.S., on Monday, Aug. 21, 2017. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

NASA PMM

Convective rainstorms in Harvey as seen by microwave instruments on GPM

Bridenstine has been a leader in supporting weather research. H.R. 353, the Lucas-Bridenstine Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act, was signed into law this year. As a former President of the American Meteorological Society consulted through the years on the potential efficacy of this bill, I know that Congressman Bridenstine was one of the driving forces behindthis bill that will hopefully save lives and property.

Bridenstine has been criticized for past statements related to federal spending on climate research. While I suspect this will be rightly fleshed out more in confirmation, my sense is that the Congressman is pragmatic. The realities of serving a state constituency are very different than leading an agency that is depended upon as a world leader in enabling Earth observations and modeling capabilities. I also find it cool that the Congressman can talk phased-array radar with the best of them. I had the opportunity to talk with him on the phone in the past about some of these topics.

There is bipartisan criticism of the selection of a politician to lead the historic and vital space agency. Senators Rubio and Nelson have been particularly vocal in expressing concern about a politician at arguably the highest-profile science agency. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the Senate confirmation. I am going to leave all of the political stuff to the politicians, but I will end by noting that NASA is a science agency that I deeply care about. I spent 12 years of my career there, and I continue to advise the agency. My door (or phone line) is always open to Mr. Bridenstine for advice on why our work is so important to the nation and the world.

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