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Former NASA chief Jim Bridenstine has just joined a private equity firm investing in the aerospace and defense sectors.
Acorn Growth Companies said the experience of Bridenstine, who stepped down shortly after U.S. President Joe Biden took office on January 20, will be particularly useful for a new investment vehicle called Aerospace and Defense Fund V.
The fund is incorporated in Delaware, a common registration location for US businesses, according to several online business listings. Bridenstine himself will be based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a must-see location for the aerospace industry, and will focus on emerging companies in the sector.
Related: Outgoing NASA chief Jim Bridenstine calls for unity in space exploration activities
“Innovation is found in small and medium-sized businesses,” Bridenstine, Acorn’s new senior advisor, said in a statement on Monday January 25th. “I am delighted to join this company and to work with disruptors who bring the necessary innovation to the aerospace and defense industries.
“Jim’s wealth of knowledge in the space, military, aerospace and engineering industries will be invaluable,” said Rick Nagel, Managing Partner of Acorn, in the same release. The main goals of Acorn and its portfolio companies will include investments in global mobility and intelligence, he added.
The Biden administration named acting NASA chief Steve Jurczyk as interim administrator on Jan.21, one of 34 acting executives announced hours after the presidential inauguration.
Bridenstine is best remembered as the NASA leader tasked with running the Artemis program, after the Trump administration ramped up the agency’s moon landing plans until 2024. In the end by 2020, eight countries signed US-led Artemis agreements for lunar exploration and Canada announced it would. send an astronaut around the moon in 2023 as part of a US-led mission.
The 2024 deadline is subject to funding and preparation of all technical issues surrounding a moon landing; One of NASA’s main challenges right now is overcoming delays and problems in testing the space launch system rocket which is slated for an unmanned mission later this year. Bridenstine also told Congress at the end of his term that he feared receiving less budgetary funding than requested for the Artemis human landing systems.
Bridenstine’s NASA has also launched efforts such as the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program to enable commercial participation in lunar missions and the continued development of large aerospace projects such as the X-59 flight demonstrator that tests silent supersonic technologies, Acorn noted. In planetary science, the Mars Perseverance rover, completed under his leadership, is expected to land on the Red Planet on February 18.
Bridenstine – a former US Navy pilot, executive director of the Tulsa Air and Space Museum and Planetarium, and Republican Congressional representative for Oklahoma – was confirmed as a NASA administrator in April 2018. His appointment drew support from the aerospace industry, but it faced an unprecedented policy. conflict during the appointment process.
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