Astronaut tipped to lead NASA science division
John Grunsfeld, an astrophysicist and astronaut who fixed the Hubble Space Telescope, may be chosen to lead NASA’s science mission directorate, according to several sources with understanding of the selection.
Grunsfeld is currently deputy director from the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, which operates Hubble. Although replace Ed Weiler, who resigned his post as NASA associate administrator in September.
“John is definitely a capable guy,” says Weiler. “He knows the two human and robotic sides. He’s a very solid citizen.”
Both have known one another for decades. They first met inside the mid-1970s when, as a teenager in Chicago, Illinois, Grunsfeld attended science workshops taught by Weiler on the Adler Planetarium. Grunsfeld went on to study physics with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, before undertaking a PhD in high-energy astrophysics on the University of Chicago.
He became an astronaut in 1992, and wound up flying on the space shuttle 5 times. Three of those missions were to fix the Hubble telescope. This might have helped him to find the nomination - NASA administrator Charles Bolden is himself an early shuttle pilot, and has shown an interest in fellow astronauts. “Clearly, he’s Charlie’s pick,” says one person with knowledge of the choices. NASA spokesman Trent Perrotto says no appointment has yet been adapted official.
Positive experience
Grunsfeld seems to have the ideal background to do the job of managing the US$5.1-billion science budget at NASA. First, he or she is a scientist - one of the few astronomers to possess both touched Hubble and used data from this. Grunsfeld also has knowledge of NASA bureaucracy, i have worked in Washington DC advising the administrator because agency's chief scientist from 2003 to 2004. In 2004, he was make the awkward position of having to defend then-administrator Sean O’Keefe’s decision to cancel Hubble’s final servicing mission (which was later reinstated, and finished up going ahead in 2009).
Since leaving NASA in 2009, Grunsfeld has been practising his management skills, looking after the approximately 500 employees with the Space Telescope Science Institute. He even practical knowledge with NASA's next flagship astronomy mission: the $8-billion James Webb Space Telescope, which, after it launches following the decade, may also be managed by the Baltimore institute. Consequently, Grunsfeld has had to develop a relationship with some of Webb’s defenders on Capitol Hill, one of them Senator Barbara Mikulski (Democrat, Maryland). Just the other day, as part of the Senate’s powerful appropriations committee, Mikulski helped to give legislation that steers $530 million to Webb in 2012 alone.
But one scientist familiar with the pick says that NASA-funded scientists who work outside astronomy - in Earth science, planetary science and heliophysics - could question Grunsfeld's leadership. “His entire reputation will depend on fixing space telescopes,” says the scientist. “I think it'll be a real tough slog for him.”
Yet Weiler says that he himself faced similar prejudice as he began his first stint as leader in the agency’s science division in 1998, after having been Hubble’s chief scientist for quite some time. “Clearly this Hubble astronomer would do terrible circumstances to planetary,” he says sarcastically. Ultimately, Weiler feels that they did not neglect planetary science - the truth is, he was one of many Mars programme’s biggest defenders. “I just made sure my decisions were according to peer review and competition. That’s what John should do,” he says.
