Former NASA chief Jim Bridenstine has just joined a private equity firm investing in the aerospace and defense sectors.
Acorn Growth Companies said the experience of Bridenstine, who resigned shortly after U.S. President Joe Biden took office on January 20, would be particularly useful for a new investment vehicle called Aerospace and Defense Fund V.
The fund was raised in Delaware, a common listing for U.S. companies, according to several online listings of companies. Bridenstine itself will be based in Tulsa, Okla., An aviation industry greenhouse, focusing on emerging businesses in the sector.
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“Innovation is being found in small and mid-range businesses,” Bridenstine, Acorn’s new senior adviser, said in a statement on Monday (January 25). “I am excited to join this firm and work with disruptors that provide the necessary innovation to the aerospace and defense industry.”
“Jim’s wealth of knowledge in the aerospace, military, aerospace and engineering sectors will be invaluable,” said Rick Nagel, Acorn’s managing partner, in the same statement. The key focal points of Acorn and its portfolio companies will include investments in global mobility and intelligence, he added.
On January 21, the Biden administration appointed senior NASA official Steve Jurczyk as acting administrator, announcing one of 34 acting leaders hours after the president’s inauguration.
Bridenstine is best remembered as the leader of NASA responsible for supporting the Artemis program, after the Trump administration accelerated the agency’s lunar landing plans to 2024. By late 2020, eight countries have signed the US-led Artemis agreements for signed lunar exploration and Canada announced sending an astronaut to the moon in 2023 on a US mission.
The deadline for 2024 is subject to funding and to have all the technical matters around a lunar landing ready; At the moment, one of NASA’s main challenges is to overcome delays and errors in testing the Space Launch System rocket, which is planned for an unmanned mission later this year. Bridenstine also told Congress late in office that he was concerned about receiving less budget funding than requested for Artemis landing systems for humans.
Bridenstine’s NASA has also launched efforts such as the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program to allow commercial participation in lunar missions, and the continued development of major aviation projects such as the X-59 flight demonstrator testing silent supersonic technologies, Acorn noted. In planetary science, the Mars Perseverance rover, completed under his leadership, will land on the Red Planet on 18 February.
Bridenstine – a former U.S. Navy pilot, executive director of the Tulsa Air and Space Museum and Planetarium, and a representative of the Republican Congress for Oklahoma – was confirmed as NASA administrator in April 2018. His appointment received support from the aviation industry, but he had unprecedented political actions during the nomination process.
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