The President-Elect Transition Team (PETT) added another member to the NASA “landing team” — Charles Miller. Rumors are that two others soon will be appointed, but as of today, their names are not on the PETT list. Miller is the eighth member of the team, which will cease to exist once Donald Trump is sworn into office on January 20 and the “transition” ends. Some may be appointed by the White House to remain at NASA thereafter, however.

Chris Shank leads the NASA landing team. The other members are Greg Autry, Jack Burns, Steve Cook, Rod Liesveld, Sandy Magnus, and Jeff Waksman.

Miller is the President of NexGen Space LLC, which describes itself as providing “client-based services at the intersection of commercial space, civil space, national security space, and public policy.”



Charles Miller. Photo credit: Miller’s LinkedIn page.

Miller worked at NASA as a senior advisor on commercial space in the early years of the Obama Administration and led assessments for NASA on commercial orbital debris mitigation and removal, satellite servicing, reusable launch vehicles, and funded Space Act Agreements. He was the NASA program executive for the Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research (CRuSR) program and led a study on propellant depots. Before joining NASA, he was a co-founder of Nanoracks; co-founder and President and CEO of Constellation Services International; and founder and President of ProSpace, an advocacy group.

The two others rumored to be in line for appointment are Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF) Chairman of the Board and former NASA Associate Administrator for Science Alan Stern and Alan Lindenmoyer, former program manager of NASA’s commercial crew and cargo program.

Correction: An earlier version of this article misidentified Alan Stern as CSF’s President. He is Chairman of the Board. Eric Stallmer is President.