President Donald Trump has nominated space policy expert Greg Autry to be NASA’s chief financial officer (CFO), just as he did back in 2020.
Autry is vice president of the National Space Society, associate provost for Space Commercialization and Strategy at the University of Central Florida and a visiting professor at Imperial College London, as well as an author and entrepreneur. He also served as NASA’s White House liaison during Trump’s first term.
Autry’s breadth of experience makes him a good choice to be NASA CFO, the person responsible for executing the agency’s roughly $25 billion annual budget, according to the agency’s acting administrator, Janet Petro.
“If confirmed, we will work together with the current Trump Administration to ensure NASA’s success in maximizing efficiencies, refining our processes and remaining effective stewards of every tax dollar invested in our agency,” Petro said in a March 25 statement.
This is the second time that Trump has nominated Autry to be NASA CFO; the president also put him up for the job in 2020, during his first term. But the U.S. Senate did not confirm Autry on that occasion.
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Also awaiting Senate confirmation is Trump’s choice for NASA administrator, the billionaire entrepreneur and private astronaut Jared Isaacman.
Trump announced his selection of Isaacman in early December and made the nomination official on Jan. 20, the first day of his second presidential term. But the Senate Commerce Committee still hasn’t scheduled a confirmation hearing for Isaacman, as far as we know.
