NASA chief says he’ll step aside when Biden takes office

Jim Bridenstine says he won’t stay on as NASA administrator under Joe Biden.

Bridenstine, a former Republican congressman from Oklahoma, took the top job at the space agency in 2018 after President Donald Trump appointed him.

He told Aviation Week that he plans to leave the post even if Biden asks him to stay. He said the NASA administrator needs to have a close relationship with the president and be trusted by the administration, and he doesn’t think he would be the right person under a new administration.

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

He told Aviation Week he hasn’t thought about what’s next in his career.