FAA/NASA/TRANSPORTATION: “The head of the Federal Aviation Administration office that oversees commercial activities in space is departing, following higher-level complaints about the pace of deregulation efforts.
George Nield, a former Air Force, NASA and industry manager who has held the FAA’s associate administrator job for a decade,’did announce his retirement effective March 31′ and ‘we’ll have more transition information at that time,’ an FAA spokesman said Tuesday [2-27-18]. The agency doesn’t discuss details of personnel changes.
But Mr. Nield’s leaving, according to industry and government officials, was prompted at least partly by White House and cabinet-level criticism that his initiatives to ease licensing procedures for rocket launches are proceeding too slowly. Members of the White House Space Council, a senior policy-making group, and the Transportation Department’s deputy secretary have expressed displeasure about the pace of change, these officials said… Mr. Nield’s decision could end up accelerating moves by top FAA officials, along with other parts of President Donald Trump’s administration, to ease or roll back regulations covering everything from earth-observation satellites to lunar landers to eventually mining minerals on asteroids.”
-Andy Pasztor, “Head of FAA’s Commercial Space Activities Oversight to Step Down,” The Wall Street Journal online, Feb. 28, 2018 09:58am