Bill Nelson was a fine congressman and an even better senator, probably the last true statesman to hold office in Florida.
He’s a decent man, and he lives right here in Orlando.
We’re proud of him and what he’s done.
But following President Biden’s nomination of his former Senate colleague to be the next NASA administrator, we have to conclude Nelson was not the best choice.
The agency needs an innovator in charge. Someone like Elon Musk, but without the personality defects.
Like him or not, Musk has made space fun, exciting and accessible again. He’s landed rockets on seaborne, robotic landing pads with names like “Of Course I Still Love you.” He got Americans back into space wearing spacesuits created by a Hollywood designer. To test a heavy launch rocket, Musk’s payload was his red Tesla roadster with a mannequin astronaut behind the wheel.
Sure, Musk is a showman, but he’s also finding new ways to save money, re-engage the public and get the mission done.
We are not advocating for Musk as NASA’s administrator. He would be a disaster in a government setting.
But we are wondering why President Biden went back to this traditional well of nominees when he had the opportunity to choose a person better suited to shaking up an agency that’s at times wasteful and plodding.
Just look at the Space Launch System, which Nelson pushed while in Congress as a way to return humans to the moon. It’s behind schedule and, according to an inspector general report last year, billions over budget.
Nelson is intimately familiar with how NASA works. Few members of Congress have been more closely involved with overseeing the agency, and he knows many of the players.
We also do not think it’s disqualifying that he’s been a politician, in the same way that we did not think it was disqualifying for the administrator who served under Donald Trump, former Oklahoma Rep. Jim Bridenstine. (Nelson said at the time, “The head of NASA ought to be a space professional, not a politician,” and later voted against Bridenstine’s nomination, along with every other Democrat in the Senate.)
Bridenstine served ably enough but, as the SLS project shows, was unable to rein in NASA’s excesses or fundamentally change the agency’s culture.
For all his attributes, experience and qualifications — including a ride aboard the space shuttle in 1986 — it’s hard to imagine Nelson will be able to do much better.
Biden didn’t just miss the opportunity to nominate an innovator. He also passed on the chance to nominate a woman and break the six-decade-old glass ceiling for NASA administrators. It’s perplexing, considering Biden’s record so far of shaping an administration that looks more like America.
In an article about Nelson’s nomination, The Atlantic noted several women who were fully qualified to do the job, including Pam Melroy, a former shuttle astronaut and Air Force veteran who is expected to be nominated as Nelson’s deputy.
Still, there’s a distinction between arguing whether someone is the best choice for a job and whether they should be confirmed.
The Senate should confirm Nelson, who has the chops and will serve as he has throughout a long career — with honor.
It would be an unjustified insult to turn him away, especially considering Nelson is far more qualified for a Cabinet post than some of the other nominees we’ve seen in recent years. Florida’s senior Republican senator, Marco Rubio, has already voiced his support for Nelson.
We want Nelson to prove us wrong. We hope he’ll shake up a sometimes languid agency and impose more financial discipline. We also hope he’ll stand up to members of Congress who view NASA primarily as an opportunity to serve up some political pork in their districts.
That could happen. But for now, we think that while Nelson wasn’t a bad pick, he certainly wasn’t the best one.
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Editorials are the opinion of the Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board and are written by one of its members or a designee. The editorial board consists of Opinion Editor Mike Lafferty, Jennifer A. Marcial Ocasio, Jay Reddick and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Send emails to insight@orlandosentinel.com.
