Since Jan. 6 Joe Biden has not suggested any names, and since his inauguration he has not nominated anyone to replace James Bridenstine as administrator of the space agency; Bridenstine’s second-in-command Steve Jurczyk is Acting Administrator. Earlier, Biden and other top Democrats had rejected continuing to target any year before 2028 as the target for landing the “first woman and next man on the Moon.” Biden has not released any draft space policy documents; his Science Advisor nominee is a geneticist; his focus is on the ostensible “science” of climate change cause and mitigation.
On Jan. 27, according to several sites and publications, such as, “The Verge,” NASA’s first act under Biden’s Presidency was to delay the coming into effect of contracts for design and development of a lunar lander, the crucial element of Artemis conceived by the Trump White House and Bridenstine. Those contracts in turn had already waited two years to let, because Congress only in the Fiscal 2021 budget finally allocated the lunar lander’s development any funds, and it was $850 million rather than the $3.2 billion that NASA at that time was requesting. Blue Origin (paired with Lockheed and Northrop Grumman, Dynetics, and SpaceX had won design contracts totaling $967 million, and those were supposed to fold into new contracts for just two of those three to compete for development. Now, nothing further will happen until at least May.
