Updated at 8 pm East with comments from Beyer and Bridenstine.
WASHINGTON – The White House announced on April 16 that it will appoint former astronaut Pam Melroy as NASA’s deputy administrator.
Melroy’s nomination was one of eight that the White House announced would run for government. The position will need confirmation by the Senate.
Melroy will be the agency’s second-in-command, behind Bill Nelson, the former White House nominee on March 19 to be the agency’s administrator. Nelson will testify at the Senate Trade Committee’s confirmation hearing for his nomination on April 21 and expects to easily win further confirmation by the full Senate.
“It is a great honor to be nominated by President Biden to support Senator Nelson and to help lead NASA. The agency is critical of America’s fight to combat climate change and maintain leadership in space, “Melroy said in a NASA statement about his nomination.
“I think Pam Melroy will be a great partner to help NASA’s leadership,” Nelson said in a statement. “Pam has long-standing technical and leadership experience that will assist NASA in its mission to explore the cosmos, expand climate change research, and ensure that the technologies developed by NASA benefit life here on Earth.”
Melroy, who worked on the NASA transition team of the future Biden administration, had been considered a prime candidate to be nominated for the NASA administrator. Once the White House announced it would appoint Nelson, it emerged as the likely choice to be deputy director. Melroy was also considered a candidate for deputy director of NASA in 2013, after Lori Garver left, but the Obama administration appointed Dava Newman, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, instead.
Melroy, a US Air Force test pilot, has been a member of NASA’s astronaut class since 1994. He flew as a pilot on the STS-92 and STS-112 shuttle missions in 2000 and 2002, respectively. shuttle STS-120 in 2007, becoming only the second woman, after Eileen Collins, to command a shuttle mission. All three missions were dedicated to assembling the International Space Station.
He left NASA in 2009 and worked for Lockheed Martin before returning to power. He served as Deputy Associate Administrator for the Federal Aviation Administration’s Commercial Space Transportation Bureau and then Deputy Director of the Tactical Technology Bureau for the Agency for Advanced Defense Research Projects. Most recently, she worked as a consultant, including supporting the new Australian space agency. He was also part of the Advisory Group for Users of the National Space Council.
As with Nelson’s nomination, Melroy’s White House nomination has won widespread praise. “This is an excellent selection of the president. I urge my colleagues in the Senate to give this nomination a quick analysis, so that NASA can obtain a confirmed management team at this essential moment “, said in a statement rep. Don Beyer (Mr.), Chairman of the Chamber’s Space Subcommittee. .
“I am extremely pleased to see that the Biden administration has appointed Colonel Pam Melroy as NASA’s deputy administrator,” former NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a statement. “Pam is a friend and I think her experience as an Air Force test pilot, deputy director of DARPA’s Tactical Technology Bureau and commander of the space shuttle will serve her well as NASA returns to the moon as part of the Artemis program. I urge the Senate to confirm it quickly. “
In the NASA statement, Melroy was excited about the agency’s return as deputy administrator. “This year, NASA will launch the first human deep space exploration program at Apollo, launch the James Webb space telescope, test the first fully electric X-plane and other technologies that will take people to Mars,” she said. “And the way to do that is as a team that honors diversity in every dimension!”