I was skeptical heading in, since we haven’t seen much in the way of leadership or intelligence (or anything legitimately administrative for that matter) coming from above. Not only was I pleasantly surprised, I was impressed with Secretary Duffy and Amit lived up to everything I’d expect from an experienced NASA leader. There were a few items that weren’t communicated as clearly as I’d like, but overall this was positive and a breath of fresh air. I guess my remaining concerns are what happens to missions like aeronautics, earth science, etc that have plenty of good work to do that isn’t related to the moon and Mars? And the other thing they need to work on is getting the research centers engaged in their goals instead of sending and relying on the space centers, which often happens when we start focusing on space missions.
For example, if they need aerodynamics expertise for launch, ascent, stage and booster separation, entry, descent, landing, etc, whether in Earth or Mars atmospheres, the leading experts are at the research centers, not the space centers, and cuts in the Aeronautics budget will free up a lot of that workforce. If our leaders truly want the best and brightest, they need to open up and tap into the wider expertise within NASA. Way back in the day, Mike Griffin recognized this and we saw aerodynamics work for Constellation/Ares being led by Langley and Ames with an aggressive campaign of wind tunnel testing and CFD.
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