On Thursday, July 30, the 2020 Mars Rover 'Perseverance' has officially launched to space. Though there has been an earthquake problem before the launch, the mission was still successfully held. But, have you ever figured who the man behind all these missions is? Meet the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) CEO and Administrator Jim Bridenstine.
Who's the man behind all these?
The Mars rover has been all over the news today. Perseverance was a product of dedication and ironically, "perseverance," of all people part of the mission. Though the operation was made out of thousands of employees, one man shines among them.
Jim Bridenstine, the 13th Administrator of the space agency, is the man we're talking about. He was officially the nominee of the United States President Donald Trump for the position. It was then approved by the U.S. Senate.
According to the NASA website, Bridenstine has been the Administrator of NASA for over two years now. He started taking over the position on Apr. 23, 2018. Until now, one of his greatest missions focuses on planet Mars and the Moon.
One of his iconic projects under his leadership is the Artemis program. For those who didn't know it, the Artemis program is the newly-launched human lunar exploration mission that aims to create the first-ever human landing since the end of NASA's Apollo missions in 1972.
It focuses to bring humans-- particularly woman and man-- on the surface of the Moon by the year 2024. Through this mission, NASA is currently developing the Orion crew capsule and the Space Launch System wherein called as the "most powerful rocket ever built," in the world.
Not only he's focused on Moon explorations, but the man also led the approval of NASA's aeronautical innovators to develop the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Traffic Management. This operation led to this day, wherein the Perseverance was created and officially launched this morning, July 28.
"I'm exceptionally excited about what we're about to do because we're going to launch Mars 2020 with the Perseverance robot," said him during a press briefing at Kennedy Space Center. "But there is so much more going on here. This is the first time in history where we're going to Mars with an explicit mission to find life on another world -- ancient life on Mars."
Perseverance's successful launch has a companion?
In the recent launching, Bridenstine led the press conference to announce that the 2020 Mars Rover is not the only machine heading to Mars. He will be having a friend called Ingenuity, a small aircraft like a helicopter.
"For the first time ever, we're going to fly a helicopter on Mars," Bridenstine told reporters ahead of the launch.
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This article is owned by Tech Times.
Written by Jamie P.
