President ***** has tapped former Democratic Senator Bill Nelson for NASA administrator, according to three people familiar with the decision. Nelson, a politically experienced ally of the administration, would steer the space agency as it races to return humans to the Moon and bolster its climate research.
Nelson, a former congressman and three-term US senator from Florida, would succeed former president *****’s NASA chief Jim Bridenstine, whose past experience in Congress proved key in rallying support for the Artemis program, an ambitious campaign to use the Moon as a stepping stone for future astronaut missions to Mars.
*****’s decision comes nearly two months after he took office and as the White House remains largely silent on…