Jim Bridenstine said Monday he plans to resign as NASA administrator following the apparent election of Joe Biden as President.
It’s what he told KRMG radio in Tulsa after Aviation Week had the story on Sunday, saying even if Biden asked him to stay on the job, “right now, the answer is no.”
He told a reporter for Aviation Week someone with a close relationship with the President is needed, “—somebody trusted by the administration….I think I would not be the right person for that in a new administration.”
Bridenstine is a former Republican congressman from Tulsa who was named NASA Administrator in April 2018. It was a job he had openly sought as he sat on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee as well as the Armed Services Committee.
“Our very way of life depends on space, the way we communicate, the way we navigate, the way we produce food and energy, the way we conduct banking,” said Bridenstine before leaving the House to take over NASA.
President Trump nominated him Sept. 1, 2017 and the U.S. Senate confirmed him April 19, 2018 on a party-line vote of 50-49.
During Bridenstine’s run at NASA, the agency’s Artemis program of crewed lunar exploration was started and the InSight Mars lander, Mars 2020 rover Perseverance and Parker Solar Probe missions were launched.
SpaceX also launched two NASA astronauts on a test flight to the International Space Station and is preparing for its Nov. 14 launch of its first operational, contracted crewed flight to the orbiting lab for NASA.