The future of NASA's human spaceflight program has led to a civil war of sorts within the upper echelons of the incoming Trump administration. As Ars reported last month, there are essentially two pathways forward for NASA in the Trump administration—one favors the status quo, while the other favors increased commercialization. For a time, the forces for status quo and continuation of the Space Launch System rocket had the upper hand. But now advocates for the increasing commercialization of NASA have struck back, led by Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel.

About two weeks ago, Chris Shank was named as the first formal member of NASA's "landing team" to manage the presidential transition. Shank is a longtime confidant of former NASA administrator Mike Griffin, and one of his directors of strategic communications. With Shank as their leader, several other members of the initial landing team also had connections to Griffin, who favors a model in which NASA develops and builds its own rocket and spacecraft, rather than handing over the reins to commercial companies such as SpaceX or Blue Origin.

During this time, momentum began to build for another Griffin protégé, Doug Cooke, to become NASA administrator. Other advocates for the status quo were also considered, including former astronaut Charles Precourt. While NASA's human destination might change from Mars back to the Moon under these candidates, they were expected to continue support for large government contractors such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Orbital ATK, and Aerojet Rocketdyne. They would also continue support for the development of the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft.

Then, last week, some of the technology industry's titans convened for a much-publicized meeting with Trump, vice-president-elect Mike Pence, and others to discuss policy issues during the Trump administration. SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk was among a handful of executives who remained behind for an extended meeting with key Trump officials. Musk's views, along with others such as Jeff Bezos (founder of Blue Origin), convinced Trump adviser Peter Thiel to intervene with Pence, who leads the transition efforts for the Trump administration. Thiel's voice, in concert with former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, prompted a new course for the NASA transition team. (Thiel worked with Musk on PayPal, and was an early investor in SpaceX).

Last Thursday, word began to trickle out about new appointments to the transition team with a decidedly commercial bent. Reports of the new transition team members first appeared in NASA Watch, and the Wall Street Journal confirmed them Monday. Ars understands that not all of the appointments are final, and Shank has resisted the new direction. "It will be interesting to see how Trump Tower handles the product of the Shank team versus the new team," one source told Ars.

Here's a quick list of some prospective new members:

Alan Stern is best known for leading the New Horizons mission to Pluto, but he is also a spaceflight entrepreneur.

Alan Lindenmoyer is a former Commercial Crew and Cargo program manager for NASA.

Charles Miller is an aerospace consultant who has already begun working on the transition.

Miller previously told Ars that a high priority for NASA should be support of lower-cost, reusable rockets like those SpaceX and Blue Origin have developed. "The biggest opportunity for transformation in space that a Trump administration is likely to be interested in is accelerating low cost access to space," Miller said.At a high level, the changes essentially set up a dynamic of Peter Thiel versus Jeff Sessions. Thiel favors lower-cost access to space and reconsideration of SLS development, while Sessions, the Alabama Senator who was an early supporter of Trump, favors the status quo in order to look out for the interests of Marshall Space Flight Center in his home state. Marshall has designed and developed the costly SLS rocket, which likely will make its maiden flight in late 2018 or, more likely, early 2019.

Given Trump's stated desire to "drain the swamp," the NASA transition is an interesting process to follow. The status quo appears to involve reviving a lot of the ideas of NASA's Constellation Program, developed by Griffin when he was the agency's administrator under President George W. Bush. This approach also favors the big defense contractors who donate widely to DC politicians. On the other hand, although they operate well outside the "swamp" of Washington DC, neither of the leading actors in the commercialization of space, Musk and Bezos, can be considered Trump supporters.