What does the NASA administrator do? The head of the agency reaches for the celebrities while navigating budgets and politics on Earth

NASA's leaders find themselves in a difficult position. Despite being the top of a widely known organization, they are sometimes not probably the most big name within the agency. More people probably know the names of Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, the astronauts currently “stranded” on the International Space Station, than Bill Nelson, the present NASA administrator.

Astronauts stands out as the people most closely related to NASA, but administrators are arguably more involved in getting programs off the bottom.

As Space policy expertI even have seen the impact individual NASA leaders can have on NASA's success. They play a critical role in deciding what NASA does and the way it does it, and additionally they help construct political support for space exploration.

The role of the NASA administrator

NASA is one independent government bureaucracymeaning it doesn’t report back to certainly one of the Cabinet departments – equivalent to the Foreign Office. Therefore, the top of NASA is more of an administrator than a secretary.

Although the name is different, a NASA Administrator has similar duties and responsibilities to a Cabinet Secretary. They help make decisions about what essential programs and policies must be pursued and the way they will probably be implemented. NASA administrators work with partners in industry, including the business space industry. They also represent NASA in presentations to Congress and through diplomatic relations with other countries.

NASA administrators are also accountable to elected officials. Administrators are appointed by the President but have to be confirmed by the Senate. Congress has rather a lot to say in regards to the budget NASA receives annually. You also have to authorize essential programs, equivalent to: the Artemis programwhich goals to return the United States and its partners to the moon.

Although essential decisions like these are sometimes out of their hands, NASA administrators still have loads of influence behind the scenes. James WebbNASA's second administrator, who held the post between 1961 and 1968, is usually recognized as integral in maintaining political support for the Apollo program.

And Goldinthe longest-serving NASA administrator, helped with saving saved the International Space Station from cancellation within the early Nineteen Nineties by convincing the Clinton administration to ask Russia to participate.

As an administrator within the early 2000s Mike Griffin helped the business space industry by introducing the Commercial orbital transportation services Program. This program provided funding for firms that sent first cargo and later astronauts to the International Space Station.

However, not all administrators are as productive as Webb, Goldin or Griffin. Richard Really Was fired from the post by George HW Bush in 1992 after he disagreed with the administration's 1989 proposal to return the US to the moon.

Charles Bolden found controversy when he told Al Jazeera that President Barack Obama had instructed him to make outreach to Muslim countries certainly one of NASA's priorities.

Both Truly and Bolden were astronauts before becoming an administrator. But that doesn't mean that former astronauts are someway worse off than people from other backgrounds. NASA administrators have historically come from a wide range of backgrounds, including scientists, engineers and even former members of Congress.

The current NASA administrator, Bill Nelsonis each a former senator and a former astronaut and flew into space on the space shuttle Columbia in January 1986.

Important questions lie ahead

No matter the administrator, the approaching years will bring big decisions for whoever is next in line.

With the current announcement that the Around the Moon Mission of Artemis II Although the launch has been delayed until spring 2026, NASA still has loads of work to do with its Artemis program. Major problems remain Issues that have to be addressed with the crew vehicle, including issues with the capsule's heat shield and electronic systems.

Furthermore, the success of business space firms like SpaceX signifies that this will probably be the case more pressure urged NASA to search out ways to scale back costs by utilizing the services of business firms.

More broadly, many other countries are being attentive to how the U.S. operates in space. Beyond what some see as a brand new space race with China, there are questions Space junk, Space traffic management And Space resources would require cooperation with other countries and would require the participation of administrators.

Finally, the NASA administrator must contend with a recurring problem: fewer resources. Historically, it was NASA less money allocated than is mandatory to perform all of the tasks assigned to him.

This situation results in difficult decisions about what kinds of missions to support. Space science and robotics research normally lose to things like manned space travel.

Although the following administrator may have to make difficult decisions, the following few years will probably be stuffed with excitement because the U.S. and others pursue increasingly ambitious goals.