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The sudden ouster of Bill Gerstenmaier at the helm of NASA's manned space flight program surprised the space community. A few hours earlier, he had testified before a House committee about the future of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) activities without indicating that anything was wrong. His deputy, former astronaut Ken Bowersox, will succeed him on an acting basis, but NASA's intentions to return to the moon and Mars are not so complicated.
NASA's director, Jim Bridenstine, announced this announcement around 8:30 pm Eastern time. In a note to employees, he announced that he was making the change to meet the Trump administration's goal of sending astronauts back to the lunar surface by 2024 – the Artemis program. Bill Hill, assistant deputy administrator for the development of exploration systems, was also dismissed. He was responsible for the development of NASA's large new rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), and the Orion crew spacecraft. Tom Whitmeyer will replace Hill on an acting basis.
The changes are effective immediately. Gerstenmaier has been reassigned as special advisor to Jim Morhard, NASA Assistant Administrator. Hill has been appointed Special Advisor to Associate Administrator Steve Jurczyk.
Gerstenmaier is a well respected 42 year old NASA veteran. Since joining NASA in 1977, he has spent most of his career in the agency's manned flight sector. He first worked on space shuttle and space station programs. After the end of the Cold War, and with Russian-American relations, he led the Shuttle / Mir program, in which US astronauts traveled to the Russian Mir space station and Russian cosmonauts aboard the American shuttle. He became responsible for the integration of the Space Shuttle Program, Deputy Head, and then Program Manager for the International Space Station (ISS). In 2005, he became associate director of the Space Operations Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters. Upon amalgamation with Mission Exploration Systems in 2011, he was named Associate Director of the new Human Exploration and Operations Mission (HEOMD).
Over the next few years, he developed and championed a plan that he considered affordable and able to withstand changing political winds to avoid the startup and shutdown, start-up and shutdown cycles that would undermine NASA's efforts to develop new rockets and a crew spacecraft for decades. . Moon? March? Its architecture hosts one or the other or both. At its center is the bridge, a small space station in lunar orbit that can serve as a transfer point to the moon or to Mars. Lunar landers or a means of transport in deep space would be moored to bring the crews to the desired destination.
NASA did not say what prompted the sudden dismissal of this much-admired figure just hours after testifying before the House Science, Space and Technology Committee about the ISS and NASA's plan to market LEO . Gerstenmaier and his team just presented a 5-point plan explaining how to do this last month. Admittedly, the plan has not been the subject of rave reviews at today's hearing, with Democrats and Republicans wondering whether it is realistic, but Gerstenmaier insisted that NASA is to be one of many customers of future commercial space stations, and not build another at the expense of the government. Nothing obvious occurred during the hearing that could have caused his dismissal.
On the other hand, rumors have been circulating for a long time, according to which the White House is not a Gateway fan. Gerstenmaier and Bridenstine see it as an essential part of a sustainable lunar exploration program. Bridenstine characterizes it as a reusable version of the Apollo control and service module.
Others see it as a waste of time and money. There is a segment of the space community that wants to go directly to the surface, like Apollo, without having to stop at a bridge. Former NASA administrator Mike Griffin called it stupid architecture last year. A vocal contingent also wants to use commercial rockets instead of SLS to get to the moon. The SLS enjoys strong support in Congress, but repeated cost overruns and schedule delays have eroded its reputation elsewhere.
The expulsion of Bill Hill could have been linked to that. SLS mastermind, Boeing, informed NASA earlier this year of another delay in the program. Instead of accepting the news, the White House has decided to speed up the return to the moon. Artemis is the result. When Pence announced it, he warned that if "subcontractors" could not improve their performance, others would be found, and if NASA could not send astronauts back to the moon. 39, here 2024, NASA should change, not its goal.
NASA and Boeing have been trying since then to accelerate the development of SLS. One of the problems is knowing you have to do a "Green Run" test where the four SLS engines are integrated into the main stage and fired for 8 minutes or ignored and rely on a much shorter test which would take place on the launching pad. Gerstenmaier told NASA's Advisory Council in May that his internal recommendation was to continue the test, but no decision had been made. He was expecting one by the end of June, but no announcement has been made. It is unclear whether this debate has played a role in today's developments.
This is speculation. More insight can be gained in the coming days. All that is clear now is that, as the nation is about to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon, the leadership of Apollo's successor, Artemis, is in full swing. disarray.
Last updated: Jul 11, 2019 at 12:07 pm ET
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