Q&A with acting NASA Administrator Steve Jurczyk
With Bryan Bender and Tyler Weyant
Quick Fix
— NASA is preparing for President Joe Biden’s expected climate push, acting Administrator Steve Jurczyk tells us.
— NASA’s bold Mars plans face a series of political hurdles as the Perseverance rover gets to work.
— A forthcoming book offers a peek behind the curtain at SpaceX’s ‘lean, difficult, early years.’
WELCOME TO POLITICO SPACE, our must-read briefing on the policies and personalities shaping the new space age in Washington and beyond. Email us at [email protected] or [email protected] with tips, pitches and feedback, and find us on Twitter at @jacqklimas and @bryandbender. And don’t forget to check out POLITICO’s astropolitics page for articles, Q&As, opinion and more.
In Orbit
TOUCHDOWN: NASA’s Perseverance rover landed Thursday afternoon on Mars, marking a historic new chapter in America’s exploration of the Red Planet.
“The most important thing was the human factor,” Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), the ranking member of the appropriations subcommittee that funds NASA who was on hand at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena as it unfolded, told us. “The tension was certainly there. … Every step of the way, every benchmark that occurs, there’s a sigh of relief or applause or a high five. It was great to see the enthusiasm by Americans for success in the space program.”
The rover checked in via its official Twitter account to let the world know it was safe. “Perseverance will get you anywhere.”
What happens next is up to Washington. Perseverance is the first in a three-part effort to bring tubes of Martian dust back to Earth for study in 2031. But that will require a decade-long commitment in dollars and political will from Congress and successive presidential administrations. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), the top Republican on the House Science Committee, admitted he is “concerned” that Congress will not follow through on funding for a mission with such a delayed payoff.
To help build support for the sample return mission another leading space legislator wants to pass a bipartisan congressional resolution so future appropriators know Congress once believed this effort was critical. “We’re not the president. We can’t be John Kennedy and say ‘at the end of the decade,’” Don Beyer (D-Va.), who chairs the House space subcommittee, said in reference to JFK’s 1962 moonshot speech that ignited the Apollo program. “But we can do the congressional equivalent.”
Perseverance can also help make the case, Moran said. “Today’s success I think helps bring us along in the cause of support for planetary missions. … Does the helicopter take off a month from now? All of those things build the case for continued support,” said Moran, referencing an experimental helicopter onboard that would be the first to fly on another planet.
#FOLLOWFRIDAY: While Perseverance has its official Twitter account, a clever social media user has also made the unofficial, unfiltered version that succinctly summed up its excitement to end its journey through space. “Just landed on another planet and didn’t immediately get crushed into a paperweight. SUCK IT, VENUS.”
ADDITIONAL READING: The Atlantic’s Marina Koren looks at why scientists are so obsessed with extraterrestrial matter that they’re willing to fight off kangaroos. And Popular Mechanics covershow Perseverance will let us hear Mars for the first time.
MARS A-SNACKS! In a time of heavy partisanship in Washington, one thing seems to be bringing D.C. together: Krispy Kreme’s Mars donut.
At the Dupont Circle location around 1:30 p.m. Thursday, the donuts, topped with orange-dyed caramel icing and filled with chocolate creme, were flying off the shelves, with every socially distanced customer in the store buying at least a half dozen. In a brief five-minute span, the staff kindly took two phone calls, informing customers they were first come, first serve, but were going very quickly. The sweets were also sold out shortly after 6 a.m. on Florida’s Space Coast, according to Florida Today.
As for the donuts themselves? If you like the sugary sweetness of standard Krispy Kreme treats, this will be right up your alley. For non-sweet tooths, it may not be anything to send images 128 million miles home about, but it’s a fun celebratory snack all the same.
Space Q&A
READYING FOR CLIMATE PUSH: NASA is expecting the Biden administration to place more focus on climate science research and the space agency will be ready: Acting Administrator Steve Jurczyk told POLITICO this week that the agency is reviewing its Earth science portfolio for areas to accelerate in anticipation of a request from the Biden team.
NASA will know more about what Biden is looking for this month. The space agency has sent its fiscal 2022 budget proposal developed under the former Trump administration to the Office of Management and Budget, and Jurczyk said he is expecting to receive feedback in late February on what areas the new president wants to highlight or cut.
“We’re just taking a look at our Earth science decadal survey … and the missions that would get to make those measurements to particularly support climate research and looking at how we might accelerate those,” Jurczyk said. “We’re doing some preparatory work expecting that that’s going to be a request when we hear back from the OMB.”
One candidate is the Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory Pathfinder program, which measures sunlight reflected by the Earth more accurately than existing tools to improve climate models. “[There will be] more conversations around exactly what we’re going to accelerate there, but the CLARREO Pathfinders is an example of something that I know will move forward,” he said.
Biden’s NASA budget could also give insight into whether it will remain the goal to return astronauts to the moon in 2024. While White House press secretary Jen Psaki has said the Artemis program has the full support of the new president, it’s unclear if Biden will stick with the aggressive timeline set by Trump, which NASA is reviewing to see if it’s even still possible.
WHAT THE NEW TEAM’S BEEN READING: A 100-plus page document on the inner workings of NASA that was prepared by the Trump administration for the incoming team was released this week to GovernmentAttic.org via a Freedom of Information Act request.
The NASA Presidential Transition Binder, which is dated November 2020, includes an overview of NASA’s budget, a section on relationships with Congress, and a profile on each of NASA’s centers across the country.
What We're Reading
‘DAVID TO GOLIATH’: Many of us are familiar with the arrival of SpaceX, tech titan Elon Musk’s space launch juggernaut that in a few short years has emerged as a go-to for both NASA and the military with its reusable Falcon rockets and the Crew Dragon space capsule.
But Eric Berger, senior space editor at Ars Technica, is out in a few weeks with the inside story on SpaceX’s early years, between 2002 and 2006, when it nearly all came crashing down.
“I felt that this was really a transformative company, certainly the most important space company of my generation,” Berger told us ahead of the March 2 release of “Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX.” “I was wondering how they did it. How they overcome some really lean, difficult, early years and three failures to succeed. They were running out of money. They were running out of rocket parts. It was really the last desperate gamble with that last flight that got to orbit.”
Berger estimates that all told he spent about 20 hours with Musk, who he described as down to earth despite his reputation as having a galactic ego. He recalled a trip with Musk and his teenage sons: “He wanted his kids sitting around while he was telling me stories,” Berger said. “So they could hear about the old days ... when dad was trying to build his first rocket.”
Indeed, Musk is more immersed in the technical aspects of rocketry than many might assume, he adds. “I would not undersell you on Musk as a brilliant engineer,” Berger told us. “He genuinely is in there helping his team solve the hardest technical problems. So when he uses the title chief engineer, it’s not actually B.S. You go back and talk to people who were there in the earliest Falcon 1 days, to those who are there now, [and] they say he is in those technical meetings rowing the boat forward and helping them.”
Another crucial figure in the company’s success is Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s chief operating officer. “Gwynne was an incredibly important hire back in 2002,” Berger believes. “Having her allows Elon to focus on the engineering challenges and the motivational challenges. She solves the business problems.”
And don’t forget all those lawsuits. “By the time they’d flown the Falcon 1 they had sued Northrop, Lockheed, Boeing, the U.S. government and protested a NASA contract,” Berger recounts. “If Elon perceives something as being unfair he fights it, even if it’s a losing battle. Over the last decade they have gone from David to Goliath in the space industry.”
Top Doc
PERCEPTIONS VS. REALITY: Many commercial space professionals hold misperceptions about the Chinese commercial space industry, according to a paper released Thursday by the Secure World Foundation and the Caelus Foundation that looks at views about China’s commercial space sector.
For example, seven of the 15 space professionals interviewed did not know if China even has a private space industry, showing just how much confusion there is among what’s going on in Beijing.
There’s also confusion about how Chinese companies are funded. While multiple interviewees said they believe Chinese space companies rely heavily on the government for financial support, the report found that China’s space industry actually struggles to get money from the government. Chinese media also frequently report that it’s actually American companies like SpaceX that receive support from the government, through NASA and Pentagon contracts.
It also found that more than 80 percent of American space officials don’t see any business threat from China today. But an even greater majority — 92 percent of those interviewed — believe that it’s “inevitable” for China to be a serious competitor for the American space industry in the future.
Making Moves
Kari Bingen, a former deputy undersecretary of Defense for intelligence and security, joins radio frequency data analytics company HawkEye 360.
Katarina DeFilippo, a former legislative assistant to Rep. Ron Estes (R-Kan.), and Scott Harris, a former aide to Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.), join the Aerospace Industries Association’s legislative affairs team.
QUESTION OF THE WEEK: Congratulations to Sam Fisher, the digital director for Sen. Pat Toomey, for being the first to correctly answer that a Martian day is called a “sol.”
This week’s question: Krispy Kreme’s Mars 2020 themed donuts were far more tasty than early space food. What food did John Glenn eat for the first meal in space?
Reading Room
— Bloomberg’s editorial board argues it’s time to kill the Space Launch System rocket: Bloomberg
— The European Space Agency is recruiting a physically disabled astronaut: Deutsche Welle
— Space Command is calling for increased investment in space infrastructure: Space News
— We must work to prevent a Space Pearl Harbor: The Dispatch
— China is building a rocket to launch the first module of its space station: Space News
— Satellite imagery company BlackSky goes public: CNBC
— SpaceX launched another batch of Starlink satellites, but didn’t stick the landing upon reentry: CNN
— Texas power outages can be seen from space: KXAN.com
Event Horizon
FRIDAY: NASA holds three briefings on the next SLS rocket engine hot-fire test, the launch of a cargo mission to the International Space Station, and a debrief on the Perseverance rover landing.
SATURDAY: A Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo ship launches from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia to resupply the International Space Station.
MONDAY: NASA holds another briefing on the Perseverance rover.
TUESDAY: The American Enterprise Institute hosts a panel discussion on space exploration and public policy.
TUESDAY: The three-day Spaceport Summit begins.
TUESDAY: The Secure World Foundation hosts an event to roll out its report on U.S. perceptions of the Chinese commercial space sector.
WEDNESDAY: The Space Foundation hosts a panel discussion on the Navy’s contribution to space and priorities for 2021.
WEDNESDAY: The NASA History Office holds a virtual event where Teasel Muir-Harmony, curatory of the Project Apollo collection at the National Air and Space Museum, discusses her new book on the politics of the moon missions.
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