Submitted by Hardscrabble Farmer
Can’t wait to hear the excuses in 5 years, if they even mention it again.
Shakeup at NASA as space agency scrambles to meet Trump moon mandate
![William Gerstenmaier]({"default":{"load":"default","w":"80","h":"51","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AAE9dGa.img?h=508&w=799&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=1940&y=1420"},"size3column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"40","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AAE9dGa.img?h=397&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=1940&y=1420"},"size2column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"40","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AAE9dGa.img?h=397&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=1940&y=1420"}})
William Gerstenmaier, a NASA veteran, was removed as head of the agency’s human exploration office Wednesday, a sudden move that comes as the agency is seeking to restore human space flight to American soil and return astronauts to the moon.
Having served at the agency since 1977, Gerstenmaier had been in charge of some of NASA’s most high-profile programs and is known as a steady and methodical force inside the halls of NASA’s headquarters. Known as “Gerst,” he was working alongside Boeing and SpaceX as they developed spacecraft capable of ferrying NASA’s astronauts to the International Space Station.
He was also leading the effort to return astronauts to the moon, which had become a priority for the Trump administration.
In an email to employees obtained by The Washington Post, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said Gerstenmaier would become a special assistant to Jim Morhard, the deputy administrator.
![NASA's Space Launch System mobile launcher]({"default":{"load":"default","w":"80","h":"53","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AAE9bjM.img?h=530&w=799&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=1980&y=1839"},"size3column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"41","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AAE9bjM.img?h=414&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=1980&y=1839"},"size2column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"41","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AAE9bjM.img?h=414&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=1980&y=1839"}})
The move comes as the White House has shown frustration with the pace of getting to the moon, and some of the problems that have plagued NASA’s marquee efforts, including the massive rocket it’s building, known as the Space Launch System, which is years behind schedule and way over budget.
Vice President Pence earlier this year directed NASA to speed up its return to the moon dramatically — by four years, to 2024 — a move that took many in the agency by surprise.
In a March speech, he took aim at NASA’s bureaucracy, saying the agency “must transform itself into a leaner, more accountable and more agile organization. If NASA’s not currently capable of landing American astronauts on the moon in five years, we need to change the organization, not the mission.”
He said the United States needed a renewed sense of urgency in order to compete with other superpowers such as China. “It’s not just competition against our adversaries,” he said. “We’re also racing against our worst enemy: complacency.”
In the email to NASA employees sent Wednesday evening, Bridenstine wrote: “As you know, NASA has been given a bold challenge to put the first woman and the next man on the Moon by 2024, with a focus on the ultimate goal of sending humans to Mars. In an effort to meet this challenge, I have decided to make leadership changes to the Human Exploration and Operations (HEO) Mission Directorate.”
He said that Ken Bowersox, a former astronaut, who had served as the deputy associate administrator for the human exploration office would take over in an acting capacity.
Bill Hill, who had served with Gerstenmaier as deputy associate administrator in the human exploration office, was also reassigned. He’ll now serve as a special adviser to Steve Jurczyk, NASA’s associate administrator.
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The first moon program was little more than a giant wealth-transfer scheme, and it looks like this is quickly becoming one too. At least this time around they have unbelievable special effects teams to “document” the event. Not that Kubrick did a bad job or anything.
Zactly…
Humans have never been to the moon. They have never traversed the Van Allen radiation belts and they probably never will.
Sloths are not real, but a free mason creation, look them up on google, none have real eyes, just marbles.
3 thumbs down? Fine. When the demonic entities summoned at CERN enter into these prepared receptacles, and they lose their cute smile and start moving like lightning and you find out what those claws are really for (rendinding human flesh) and why the eyes are dead (to vacuum up your soul); then you’ll be sorry.
When you have a deputy associate administratot, you do not have an agile organization..
bring back the old negro space program
From Massa to Nassa
Within the first minute of the presentation I was choking on my red hot beef and bean burrito.
As I mentioned in an earlier thread, I wrote an article about NASA and the moon landing for Lew Rockwell a few years back.
Lew doesn’t have a comments section, but you do have to give an email address at the close of your articles so I got some interesting email from it.
Almost all of it came from former NASA employees or contractors and they pretty much all said that the NASA of today is not the same as the NASA that put men on the moon.
All were very proud of the work they had done and were disgusted by what NASA has degenerated into. They usually described current employees as just a bunch of political appointees and their lazy hacks.
My own experience in working with NASA a few times is pretty much the same. They outsource just about everything and actually do very little themselves.
Here is a typical 8AM to 5PM day in the engineering and procurement section that I had interface with:
They start to arrive at about 9-9:30.
They coffee klatsch from office to office, cubicle to cubicle until about 11AM.
Then they go to lunch.
They start straggling back in at about 1:30 to 2 o’clock and send out some emails requesting the work from the contractors and sub-contractors that they had sent the work that they were supposed to do to.
By 3 o’clock, the place is deserted.
My favorite email from that article was from a former NASA employee that said that in his opinion the people currently employed at NASA are a bunch of morons that he wouldn’t trust to design a canoe.
If Trump really wants to go back to the moon, he had better not expect to get there on anything designed by NASA.
There is no going back to the moon. NASA or America’s astronauts never went there to begin with.
Hey Steve, you forgot the precise scheduling for the compulsory extended toilet breaks – one in the morning to drop off the brown kids at the oval indoor pool and the afternoon post prandial to “freshen up.”
Sounds like a majority of federal government jobs where any thought of actually being competitively productive either never existed or is brainwashed out of you during your probationary period where any supervisor or management staff is scared shitless to say anything negative about anyone unless your a white male . This is why we have black employment of federal jobs at about 30% leaving very few to actually do any work !
A female family member got a paper pushing job right out of high school for the DOD on a military base . After 5 years she was convinced how much more money she is worth in the private sector , she was full of shit of course ! My wife & I explained to her that her benefits and salary for her experience and schooling would not get anything like what she has now and never will .
She did not believe us at first but after a few interviews on one of her personal leave days where she was told her attitude was so poor that she can get the fuck out of the office and don’t look back , a dose of reality for a federal gravy train passenger cruising thru life on the back of the taxpayer and retiring before she was 60
We all know who is getting screwed here , tax paying working Americans the few left hanging on !
The face on that guy inspires what exactly? Defeat? Resignation? Who would take orders from that guy? It’s as if when they hire people they look for the most lopsided faces with the most unhappy expressions- every time. He’s a grown man, beyond that, he’s nearing retirement, and he looks like he cuts his own hair in the dark with nail clippers and climbs into the shower maybe once a week. And what’s with the walrus mustache on all of these top echelon guys? They all look like their dog just died.
I just don’t get it.
Seems pretty qualified to me.
https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/gerstenmaier_bio.html
He is almost retirement age and not all of us age all that well, but there is really nothing wrong with his hair, as if that mattered, and how could you possibly pick on the guy for his mustache? That’s really not very kind.
Now, I’m not saying that he has what it takes to return NASA to a lunar capable agency. How could I possibly know? But he has the bono fides all the way back to 1977.
Is this a better picture?
bona fides
No Sony Bono’s dogs. Bono Fidos.
NASA is a black hole-sized slush fund posing as a space agency.
Maybe that face was selected to represent the NASA that was tasked with making Muslims feel better?
I was thinking nearly the same thing when I saw the attached photo of the Space Launch System mobile launcher with the prominent “Explore Moon To Mars” banner displaying the bold graphic crescent moon of Islam .
I forgot about the Mohammedan outreach program.
When I saw his photo my first impression was this man is really, really sad. Defeated, resigned or just plain worn out. He should be sitting in a rocker watching the sunset, not running anything.
I remember your first skeptical article on the man on the moon events. I started searching for info on the net and found some challenging, thoughtful and funny stuff. The staged color photos of a spotless lander. No sign of retro rockets being fired. Duh. Tis a mystery.
Hey, I resemble that mustache remark.
I have a full Earp (Wyatt Earp mustache) as it extends out a bit further.
They are quite fashionable here in Texas…
He just got shitcanned, that has got to show on his face. Yes, it says demoted but going to work for a junior deputy has got to hurt.
That’s about as confidence inspiring and triumphant as well… not an agency that has really accomplished anything.
I think he’s perfect. He perfectly epitomizes the state of affairs at NASA. Resignation, exhaustion, ennui, defeat, sorrow and loss. He looks like his dog died, his wife left him and he’s to old and tired to care anymore….
Got to the moon go to mars got to a space station , kick rocks assholes ! How about go to hell !
You want to fund something with other people’s money well , how about a real financial rescue plan for America’s retirement plans that are bankrupt or evaporated for the private sector ! Let’s not just assure government employees that the powers that be will tax into the street and work to death private sector working people who have been anally fucked to death for the past 40 plus years financially to secure government pension plans yes police Fire school teacher and any other employee receiving pay and benefits funded by individual victims of government largess and power ! You too must get your fair share of bleeding rectums at the hands of the circle jerk of Wall Street to K-Street to Capitol Street , the big club !
You want another man in space ? Get your wallet out , your check book , your life savings this American is tapped out and done with all the flag waving happy horse shit ! Fix something correctly and permanently for a change ! Like the real Economy for real people , like 30 MILLON assholes bleeding our nation by setting up residence illegally (get them the fuck out of here) like health care system that works for everybody not just the government selected few !
Space race get lost Will Robinson !
Well, that was a bit hyperbolic, but I wholeheartedly concur with everything that you said.
anon’s rant made me wonder where boat guy’s been
It’s me boat guy cz somehow during a software upgrade I got blown off the platform ???? Don’t know WTF . The Misses keeps telling me I will get in trouble speaking out . She may be correct but I do not care ! Beat death twice now so fuck it !
Interesting clip of Buzz Aldrin. Surely out of context. Right?
Truth at last!
A face that screams stability.
Double sanpaku and teeth the color of old bananas. Where do they find these people?
I invented the coolest thing in the world that would have made me a billionaire. But I destroyed it.
I should try to do it again, but I’m going to need a few trillion dollars. Can anyone lend a brother a hand?
Stove them a break. They have been working really hard promoting the global warming agenda. Publishing fake temperature records is hard work.
Here you have some honestyb
Astronout Pettit said that we cannot go back to the moon as all the technology has been destroyed and it is extremely difficult to get it back.
Yeah, right. Insult my intelligence.
“The technology was destroyed…”??? Holy shit mon; this is indeed psychotic.
On the other hand, irrespective of the technology, astronut Pettit would not survive an exploration “mission” to Camden, N.J.
I think that the first time something was posted here concerning NASA the majority of the comments were solidly in their camp, now the tables, they have turned.
NASA already wanted a mission to the moon and Georgie Boy announced it in his own way which was not JFK moment. That was the last we heard of it. Now, the big boys want to push it to spread money around to their buddies before AOC spends it on her pet projects.
Yep, good luck with that. When you figure out how to get through the Van Allen Belt, let me know, since it’s never been done before.