The two top Democrats on the House Science, Space, and Technology (SS&T) Committee that oversee NASA expressed surprise at yesterday’s sudden dismissal of two NASA officials leading the Artemis program to return astronauts to the Moon by 2024, Bill Gerstenmaier and Bill Hill.  Expressing concern about the impact on the human spaceflight program of losing its engineering leadership at a critical time, they called on NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine to further explain his decision. Meanwhile, Bridenstine announced a nationwide search today to find their permanent replacements.

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A day after abruptly reassigning them to “special advisor” roles in the agency, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced the opening of a nationwide search for successors to Bill Gerstenmaier and Bill Hill.  Gerstenmaier had been the long-time head of NASA’s human spaceflight program.  Hill headed the effort to build a new big rocket, the Space Launch System, and Orion crew spacecraft to send astronauts back to the Moon and on to Mars.  Bridenstine’s memo announcing the job search is posted below.

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The sudden ouster of Bill Gerstenmaier as the head of NASA’s human spaceflight program caught the space community by surprise.  Hours earlier he had testified to a House committee about the future of activities in low Earth orbit (LEO) with no indication that anything was amiss. His deputy, former astronaut Ken Bowersox, will succeed him on an acting basis, but there is much scratching of heads as to what this means for NASA’s plans to get back to the Moon and on to Mars.

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Bill Gerstenmaier, the head of NASA’s human spaceflight program, and Bill Hill, in charge of NASA’s efforts to build a new rocket and crew spacecraft to get astronauts back to the Moon, have been replaced. In a statement this evening, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said it is time for new leadership.  Former astronaut Ken Bowersox will take over Gerstenmaier’s position on an acting basis.  Tom Whitmeyer will replace Hill in an acting capacity.  Here is Bridenstine’s full statement.

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The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee today (July 10, 2019) approved a bill to protect lunar heritage sites — such as where Apollo 11 landed — as more countries and companies pursue activities on the Moon’s surface. The bill requires anyone getting a license from the U.S. government to conduct lunar activities to agree to observe recommendations developed by NASA in 2011 and any updates to it.  Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), a co-sponsor of the bill, said he would work with the House to pass the legislation and get it on the President’s desk “quickly.” [UPDATE: An amended version of the bill passed the Senate on July 18.]

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Key members of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee are working on a new NASA authorization bill that will spell out a “bold” vision for the agency’s future.  Aviation and Space Subcommittee chairman Ted Cruz (R-TX) made clear that his goal is for America to continue to lead in exploring space and make sure the “first boot to set foot on the surface of Mars will be that of an American astronaut.”

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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of July 7-13, 2019 and any insight we can offer about them.  The House and Senate are in session this week.

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In his Salute to America address yesterday, President Trump honored iconic NASA Apollo flight director Gene Kranz and promised that the United States will be back on the Moon “very soon.”  He then added that trips to Mars will happen “someday soon.”  He invoked the names of other aviation and space legends, but stopped short of the rousing rhetoric used by Vice President Mike Pence in March to proclaim that American astronauts will return to the lunar surface in 2024.

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Here are SpacePolicyOnline.com’s tidbits for July 5, 2019:  COMSTAC renewed, the solar eclipse from lunar orbit, new payloads for NASA’s CLPS robotic lunar program.  Be sure to check our website for feature stories and follow us on Twitter (@SpcPlcyOnline) for more news and live tweeting of events.

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Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX) has reintroduced the American Free Enterprise Space Commerce Act.  It is identical to a bill he introduced in the last Congress that passed the House by voice vote, but was never voted on by the Senate.  Instead the Senate passed a different bill, the Space Frontier Act, but it was defeated in the House.  That has left congressional action on a range of commercial space issues such as modernizing existing regulations and deciding which Cabinet Department should be assigned new regulatory responsibilities in limbo.

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