NASA veteran William Gerstenmaier was removed as head of the agency's human exploration office

[mahatmakanejeeves]

This is all I have.

NASA veteran William Gerstenmaier was removed as head of the agency’s human exploration office

Link to tweet

[elleng]

1. (born September 1954) is the current Associate Administrator for Human Exploration

and Operations for NASA, holding this position since 2005. He has been described as "arguably the most influential person when it comes to US spaceflight."

In 1995, Gerstenmaier returned to NASA as the Shuttle/Mir Program Operations Manager, and was the liaison to the Russian Space Agency for operations and protocols. For the first half of 1996, he was stationed in Russia to support astronaut Shannon Lucid, who spent six months aboard Mir.

In December 2000, Gerstenmaier was named Deputy Manager of the International Space Station Program. In 2002, Gerstenmaier was named Manager of the International Space Station Program. Mike Suffredini replaced Gerstenmaier as the International Space Station Program manager.

Gerstenmaier has held his current position as Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations since 2005.[3][9]

Gerstenmaier has twice been awarded the Aviation Week and Space Technology's Laureate Award for "Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Space", as well as three NASA Certificates of Commendation, two NASA Exceptional Service Medals, a Senior NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, and the Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Executives.[2][5][9]

In 2003, he received the Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Executives. Also that year he received the Outstanding Aerospace Engineer Award, Purdue University.

In 2004, Gerstenmaier was selected as a finalist for the Service to America Medal, for "Leading the efforts to continue the safe operation of the International Space Station in the absence of the Space Shuttle, allowing continued research and preservation of its unique capabilities for the future."[10]

In 2006, the Huntsville National Space Club awarded him the Von Braun Award.

In 2007, The Federation of Galaxy Explorers honored Gerstenmaier with the 2007 Space Leadership Award, and Purdue University honored him with the Distinguished Alumni Award, "For outstanding accomplishments in a career dedicated to the human exploration of space and international cooperation in space." In November 2008 he was honored again at Purdue as an Old Master in the 2008 Old Masters Program.[6][11][12]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_H._Gerstenmaier

Russkies don't like him???

[RHMerriman]

2. Gerstenmaier actually understands system engineering and program management;

Gerstenmaier actually understands system engineering and program management;

Bridenstine/Pence/Trump just want a stunt, because Trump is dying for anything that can be labelled an accomplishment. In March, the Administration cut the development time for a human return to the Moon by 48 months, from a target date of 2028 to 2024. Gerstenmaier was one of those who argued it could be done, reasonably safely, by 2028.

2024 is unrealistic, at best.

Looks like Ken Bowersox, a former astronaut and aerospace industry exec is in; he's probably promised Trump they can do a flags and footprints mission by 2024, which is - aggressive - to say the least. The launch vehicle doesn't exist, the lunar lander doesn't exist, and the command and service module has been tested, without a crew, in low earth orbit and safely recovered exactly once.

[link:http://nasawatch.com/archives/2019/07/bill-gerstenmai-1.html#more|]

Basically, this is the result of Gerstenmaier telling Trump et al that waving their hands and saying "Moon!" doesn't create the capability of landing a crew on the Lunar surface and returning the safely to the Earth, much less creating the systems, spacecraft, and infrastructure to achieve much of anything significant once on the Moon in terms of research work.