NASA's Associate Adminstrator Has Retired

In a statement late in the day on Wednesday, Feb. 19, NASA reported that associate administrator Jim Free was retiring effective yesterday, Feb. 22.  Free had been associate administrator, the top civil-service position in the agency, since the retirement of Bob Cabana at the end of 2023.  

Free was previously associate administrator for exploration systems development, a position NASA created in 2021 when it split the former Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate into two directorates, one overseeing exploration programs and the other the International Space Station and related operations. Earlier in his 30-year NASA career, he was director of the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.

I know that I've mentioned Jim Free by name here in the blog many times, and while I don't claim any sort of insider knowledge of life inside NASA, I think the first mention that I remember by name was June 16, 2023 when I reported that he was arguing NASA should drop fixed price contracts and use only cost-plus.  It's simply hard to sum up how much I differ from Free on that.  His argument is that if a fixed cost contract doesn't deliver on time, the buyers are stuck; the problem is he completely ignores that big, cost-plus contracts (think SLS) are also late and you pay more for them to be delivered late. There's simply no evidence that cost-plus contracts deliver better results sooner.

Primarily based on his position, when Bill Nelson and Pam Melroy stepped down as NASA administrator and deputy administrator at the end of Biden's administration, Free was expected to take the top spot.  In fact, SpaceNews reports that on inauguration day, NASA's website listed Free as acting administrator.

However, several hours later the White House announced it had selected Janet Petro, director of the Kennedy Space Center, as acting administrator. The decision reportedly even took top agency officials by surprise.

There has been puzzlement over appointing Janet Petro so it's worth pointing out that back before the election, Free had voiced concern that a new administration might drop the priority on Artemis, saying, “We need that consistency in purpose. That has not happened since Apollo.  If we lose that, I believe we will fall apart and we will wander, and other people in this world will pass us by.”  Contrast that view of Artemis, which necessarily includes SLS, with the talk of going to Mars instead of the moon (and rather than both).  If you're a fan of SLS with its absurd cost overruns and schedule slips, it seems out of line with the current administration. 

NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free at an agency "all hands" event in December 2024. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls