{"id":18609,"date":"2018-03-13T01:21:50","date_gmt":"2018-03-12T17:21:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasas-acting-administrator-says-hell-retire-in-april-adding-to-power-vacuum\/"},"modified":"2018-03-13T01:21:50","modified_gmt":"2018-03-12T17:21:50","slug":"nasas-acting-administrator-says-hell-retire-in-april-adding-to-power-vacuum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasas-acting-administrator-says-hell-retire-in-april-adding-to-power-vacuum\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s acting administrator says he\u2019ll retire in April, adding to power vacuum"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_403790\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-403790\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-403790\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/180312-lightfoot-630x504.jpg\" alt=\"Robert Lightfoot\" width=\"630\" height=\"504\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/180312-lightfoot-630x504.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/180312-lightfoot-768x614.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/180312-lightfoot.jpg 985w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-403790\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Acting NASA administrator Robert Lightfoot, shown here in a 2015 photo, says he\u2019ll retire in April. (NASA \/ MSFC Photo \/ Fred Deaton)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Robert Lightfoot, who has been serving as NASA\u2019s acting administrator since the start of the Trump administration, says he\u2019ll be retiring at the end of next month.<\/p>\n<p>His departure after more than a year of caretaker duty could open the power vacuum in space policy even wider&nbsp;\u2014 or force a resolution.<\/p>\n<p>President Donald Trump nominated Rep. Jim Bridenstine, R-Okla., to fill NASA\u2019s top post last September, but his nomination has languished because Senate confirmation is in doubt. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is said to be a key opponent, claiming that Bridenstine would be too much of a political choice for a post that\u2019s not traditionally held by a politician.<\/p>\n<p>For what it\u2019s worth, Rubio was a target of Bridenstine\u2019s criticism during 2016\u2019s presidential primary season.<\/p>\n<p>Other presidentially appointed posts at NASA&nbsp;\u2014 including deputy administrator and chief financial officer&nbsp;\u2014 are still unfilled as well.<\/p>\n<p>In a NASA status report distributed by SpaceRef, Lightfoot is quoted as saying he\u2019ll retire April 30 but didn\u2019t specifically explain the timing for his departure. He turns 55 this year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI will work with the White House on a smooth transition to the new administrator,\u201d Lightfoot said.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"\u201cState of NASA\u201d Events Highlight Agency Goals for Space Exploration\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Fe2HxMDyKXk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Lightfoot began his NASA as a test engineer at Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama in 1989, and served as Marshall\u2019s center director from 2009 to 2012. He became associate administrator in 2012. That made him NASA\u2019s highest-ranking civil servant \u2014 and the natural choice for the caretaker role when Donald Trump became president and President Barack Obama\u2019s administrator, Charles Bolden, resigned.<\/p>\n<p>The NASA statement quoted from Lightfoot\u2019s message to space agency employees.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI cannot express enough my gratitude to the entire NASA team for the support during my career and especially the last 14 months as your acting administrator,\u201d he said. \u201cThe grit and determination you all demonstrate every day in achieving our missions of discovery and exploration are simply awe-inspiring.&nbsp; I leave NASA blessed with a career full of memories of stunning missions, cherished friendships, and an incredible hope for what is yet to come.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said each employee has a part in writing the 60-year-old space agency\u2019s history. \u201cI\u2019ve written my part and now the pen is in your hands \u2013 each one of you,\u201d Lightfoot said.<\/p>\n<p>NASA quietly named Steve Jurczyk acting associate administrator earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p>Lightfoot drew praise from Phil Larson, who served as a space policy adviser in the Obama White House and is now an assistant dean at the University of Colorado\u2019s College of Engineering and Applied Science in Boulder.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRobert is a true public servant and was great to work with,\u201d Larson told GeekWire during a text exchange. \u201cHe served NASA\u2019s interests well, and his decades of experience and steady hand during tumultuous times will be missed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Larson said that Lightfoot\u2019s imminent retirement serves as a reminder that \u201cNASA and its more than 17,000 civil servants remain leaderless.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe White House and Senate need to figure this out and get a leader confirmed&nbsp;\u2013 now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., also paid tribute to Lightfoot.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe country owes Robert a debt of gratitude for his many years of outstanding service and leadership at NASA,\u201d Nelson said. \u201cHe\u2019ll surely be missed, but I\u2019m confident that there are a number of highly qualified individuals at the agency who can assume his role in the interim and continue the great work being done there to get us to Mars.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nelson signaled that he\u2019d continue to oppose Bridenstine\u2019s nomination.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLonger term, the White House needs to nominate a space professional for NASA administrator who will actually garner strong bipartisan support,\u201d the senator said. \u201cThe current nominee doesn\u2019t have the votes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Acting NASA administrator Robert Lightfoot, shown here in a 2015 photo, says he\u2019ll retire in April. (NASA \/ MSFC Photo \/ Fred Deaton) Robert Lightfoot, who has been serving as NASA\u2019s acting administrator since the start of the Trump administration, says he\u2019ll be retiring at the end of next month. His departure after more than [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[190,4467,2986],"class_list":["post-18609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-nasa","tag-politics","tag-robert-lightfoot"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18609"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18609\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}