The appointment of NASA’s new head breaks tradition; understand

Following the controversy involved in Elon Musk and Donald Trump, including Jared Isaacman’s retirement to lead NASA due to the proximity among businessmen, the space agency finally has a new commander. At least provisionally. The temporary manager of the agency will be Sean Duffy, the current United States Transportation Secretary.

The president was pressured to announce a new name soon to head the entity. However, the choice generated surprise.

Duffy has no scientific training

Although the United States Department of Transportation oversees the country’s federal aviation administration (FAA), which in turn is responsible for transporting commercial space and air traffic control, Sean Duffy has a degree in marketing and lawyer, which means that he has no scientific background. This only makes this indication very rare.

Historically, NASA administrators are ancient astronauts, a long time bureaucrats from the space agency, former consistent veterans or the army. Despite being representative of Wisconsin in the Congress from 2011 to 2019 and a prosecutor in the same state for ten years, he has no previous experience in the agency or the armed forces, which is broken by a tradition established for decades. Duffy is also known for his career as a television host.

In addition, it is not uncommon for NASA commander to divide the functions. And this is exactly what will happen now, as Trump’s candidate will continue to act as Secretary of Transportation in the country.

According to CnnThe announcement did not make clear the situation of Janet Petro, director of the Kennedy Space Center of NASA and no interim since the beginning of Trump’s second term. She even listed as provisional administrator on the Agency’s website until the publication of this article. The election of a new definitive chief depends on the presidential indication and the approval of the Senate, but there is still no deadline to complete this process.

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NASA lives a delicate moment

• During the period of uncertainty about the new head of the space agency, the White House stated that the following agency commander should be aligned with the ideals of President Trump;
• And this is exactly what Duffy is expected to be in charge;
• The United States government submitted a proposal to reduce NASA budget to 2026 from $ 24.8 billion to $ 18.8 billion;
• If approved, the measure can lead to the dismissal of a third of the agency employees;
• This would have possible impacts on important missions, such as the Juno, Jupiter and New Horizons probe, which studied Pluto, which is at risk of being closed;
• These cancellations may delay in years the progress of US spatial exploration.