At a time of turmoil and competing visions for the agency, NASA will be led by a Trump administration cabinet member.
Sean Duffy was ceremonially sworn in as U.S. Secretary of Transportation by Vice-President J.D. Vance in January. Credit: Department of Transportation
- Sean Duffy, the Transportation Secretary, is NASA’s new interim administrator.
- Duffy lacks extensive space policy experience.
- President Trump’s proposed budget significantly cuts NASA’s science funding.
- “I’m confident in his leadership as we carry forward the President’s ambitious agenda,” said Janet Petro.
President Donald Trump announced Wednesday evening that U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy would serve as an “interim administrator” of NASA.
“He will be a fantastic leader of the ever more important Space Agency, even if only for a short period of time,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social, his social media platform.
Duffy — who has no significant prior experience in space policy — acknowledged his new additional role in a post on X, writing, “Honored to accept this mission. Time to take over space. Let’s launch.”
The move fills — if temporarily — a leadership void at NASA, which has been without a duly appointed administrator since Trump took office. Early in his term, Trump had nominated entrepreneur and private astronaut Jared Isaacman for the post on the recommendation of his former close advisor, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. But Trump withdrew that nomination on May 31, citing Isaacman’s past donations to Democratic candidates. The reversal came shortly after Musk departed Trump’s administration and just days before Isaacman was due to be confirmed by the Senate.
It is unprecedented for a NASA administrator to also serve as a full-time member of the presidential cabinet, and how Duffy will split his time between the roles remains unclear.
Competing visions
Duffy‘s installation as head of NASA comes at a time of turmoil for the agency. On the same day Duffy was named NASA’s interim administrator, Politico reported that at least 2,145 senior-ranking staff members have accepted offers to leave the agency as part of the Trump administration’s broader efforts to shrink the federal workforce.
The prospect of massive budget cuts continues to loom over NASA’s science and deep-space missions. The Trump administration’s proposed budget request for 2026, released in May, slashes funding for its science directorate by 47 percent and cancels more than 40 missions. Scientists and advocacy groups have warned that Trump’s budget, if enacted, would be catastrophic and could end U.S. leadership in space science.
The cuts face opposition in Congress, however. On Thursday, during a meeting of the Senate appropriations committee, members indicated that its initial appropriations bill would keep NASA science funding flat, while limiting cuts to the National Science Foundation to $60 million, a 0.67 percent decrease from the last year for which a budget was enacted by Congress.
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The Trump administration’s vision for NASA’s lunar exploration efforts is also at odds with some leaders in Congress. The president’s FY2026 budget request would have pulled funding for NASA’s Artemis program after the planned Artemis 3 crewed landing. However, the Senate restored funding for missions Artemis 4 and 5 in its reconciliation bill (named the “One Big Beautiful Bill”) passed earlier this month, which Trump signed into law on July 4.
Double duty
Duffy — a star of the 1997 reality series The Real World: Boston and a world-champion competitive lumberjack — began his political career in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2010, riding the Tea Party movement to win election in Wisconsin’s 7th district in the state’s northwest corner. After leaving Congress in 2019, he worked as a lobbyist and political TV host and commentator before being appointed to lead the Department of Transportation by President Trump at the beginning of his second term.
As transportation secretary, Duffy’s initiatives include an overhaul of the U.S. air traffic control system and clamping down on enforcement of English-language proficiency requirements for commercial truck drivers. He has shown some public interest in spaceflight, viewing the Crew-9 splashdown from NASA headquarters.
While Isaacman told senators that a roughly 50 percent budget cut “does not appear to be an optimal outcome” and pledged to “advocate for strong investment in space science,” Duffy is more likely to align his NASA efforts with the president’s agenda, reports Eric Berger of Ars Technica. “Duffy likely views his mission at NASA as carrying out the vision of the space agency established by the president’s budget request,” Berger wrote.
Duffy takes over leadership of NASA from current acting administrator Janet Petro. In a statement released by NASA’s Public Affairs Office and posted at NASAWatch.com, Petro said, “I’ve had the opportunity to work closely with Secretary Duffy — including during Crew-9’s return in the Space Operations Center at NASA Headquarters — and I’m confident in his leadership as we carry forward the President’s ambitious agenda.” Petro said she would return to Florida, where she is the director of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
