NASA boss to step down before Joe Biden becomes president

Space agency administrator says president-elect needs own ‘trusted’ pick

NASA boss Jim Bridenstine says he will step down before president-elect Joe Biden takes office.

The space agency administrator said that he would quit his role as Mr Biden would need someone he “trusted” in charge.

“The right question here is ‘What’s in the best interest of NASA as an agency, and what’s in the best interest of America's exploration programme?' " he told Aviation Week.

“For that, what you need is somebody who has a close relationship with the president of the United States. You need somebody who is trusted by the administration.

"I think that I would not be the right person for that in a new administration.

“We’ve had a lot of success, but it's because of relationships.

"You have to have those relationships. Whoever the president is, they have to have somebody they know and trust and somebody the administration trusts.

"That person is not going to be me."

Mr Bridenstine, a former Republican congressman from Oklahoma, was appointed by Mr Trump in 2017.

His nomination was criticised for politicising the agency and he was confirmed in April 2018 along party lines.

Under his leadership NASA’s goal is to return to the moon by the end of the decade for the first time since the Apollo era in the 1960s and 1970s.

NASA’s Artemis programme aims to land the first female on the moon by 2024.