posted 12-09-2016 04:36 PM            

The transition team for U.S. President-elect Donald Trump added six more people to the NASA landing team Friday, representing a range of viewpoints on topics such as commercial spaceflight and development of heavy-lift launch vehicles.

...the NASA landing team is led by Chris Shank, who worked for House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) until last week. Shank worked for NASA from 2005 to 2009, during the tenure of administrator Mike Griffin.

• Steve Cook, who was in charge of the Ares 1 and Ares 5 rocket programs at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, until leaving the agency in 2009 for Huntsville-based Dynetics

• Greg Autry, an assistant professor of entrepreneurship at the University of Southern California

• Jack Burns, a professor at the University of Colorado and senior vice president of the American Astronomical Society

• Rodney Liesveld, a former senior policy adviser at NASA

• Sandy Magnus, a former NASA astronaut who flew on three missions, including a 4.5-month stay on the International Space Station, and has been executive director of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics since 2012

• Jeff Waksman, a former research fellow at the U.S. House of Representatives

posted 12-14-2016 12:46 PM               

The news came ahead of a meeting with top tech leaders, including Blue Origin's Jeff Bezos.

Earlier this month, President-elect Trump established the President’s Strategic and Policy Forum and announced an initial round of 16 members. The Forum, which is composed of some of America’s most highly respected and successful business leaders, will be called upon to meet with the President frequently to share their specific experience and knowledge as the President implements his economic agenda.

posted 12-22-2016 08:09 AM               

Miller, like many other members of the landing team, previously worked for NASA. He served as senior adviser for commercial space from 2009 to 2012, a time when NASA was starting several commercial space efforts, from its commercial crew development program to the Flight Opportunities program for suborbital research.

Prior to joining NASA, he was chief executive of Constellation Services International, which worked on concepts for commercial cargo delivery under NASA's Alternative Access to Station program, a precursor to NASA's later commercial cargo program. He was also a co-founder of NanoRacks, a company that provides flight services to the station for experiments and small satellites. Miller established a consulting company, NextGen Space LLC, after leaving NASA.

posted 12-22-2016 10:18 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by SpaceAngel:
Charlie Bolden will step down as NASA Administrator...

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posted 01-03-2017 08:56 AM               

A recent blog post by him gives a very insightful look at his position on lunar exploration and infrastructure development.

This is also the first step for manned missions deeper into our solar system. A permanent human presence on other celestial bodies requires in situ resource utilization. The Moon, a three-day trip from the Earth, represents the best place to learn, train, and develop the necessary technologies and techniques for in situ resource utilization and an eventual long term human presence on Mars. Fortunately, the Space Launch System and Orion will start testing in 2018. This system, with a commercial lander, could quickly place machines and robots on the Moon to begin the cis-lunar economy. With the right presidential guidance, humans could return in short order as well; this time, to stay.